–President Ali announces

INCREASED traffic along the West Bank and West Coast of Demerara corridor has necessitated the construction of a four-lane highway from Schoonord to Crane, according to President Dr Irfaan Ali.

“…because of the speed of development in the region [Region Three], we have to go with a stop-gap and build an alternative four-lane highway from Crane to Schoonord because that is where there is a huge traffic back-up,” President Ali said in his address at GAICO’s dredge- commissioning ceremony at Nismes, West Bank Demerara (WBD), on Saturday.

The Head of State related that he led a team of ministers on Friday to inspect the alignment, which is about three miles long.
Owing to the rapid pace of development, this highway will precede the planned construction of a four-lane highway from Schoonord to Parika on the East Bank of Essequibo (EBE).

This potential road link, President Ali had said, will open thousands of acres of land for housing, massive agriculture and agro-related projects, and for tourism and other related activities.
The construction of this particular road, however, is merely a component of a broader plan to modernise the country’s infrastructure and create myriad alternative and more convenient linkages.

At the centre of those plans is the intended construction of a new ‘fly-over’ Demerara Harbour Bridge, which will stretch from Nandy Park on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD) to La Grange, WBD.
The new four-lane, high-span bridge, once completed, will replace the existing structure which was built in 1976, over four decades ago.

In continuing its drive to transform the country’s infrastructure, the government has allocated the largest portion of its milestone $552.9 billion Budget 2022 to the Ministry of Public Works. A total of $96.1 billion has been allocated to the ministry, which is responsible for the country’s infrastructure.

Some $76.7 billion for roads and bridges under the Ministry of Public Works in the 2022 budget.
Another component of public infrastructure is the construction of houses and the accompanying facilities to make the environment conducive to living. To this end, the government has allocated $12.4 billion for further development of the housing sector.

“With the construction boom underway, particularly pertaining to the rapid expansion in housing and road projects, the development and expansion of the other mining and quarrying subsector is crucial,” Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, had said.

This expansion, he related, has the potential of lowering construction costs since the abundance of local, readily available resources could ease the impact of imported inflationary pressure on the cost of key construction materials.

In an area related to construction and manufacturing, there is expected to be significant growth by the end of this year.