–Minister Rodrigues says, as government forges ahead with infrastructure transformation

WITH plans to modernise Guyana’s infrastructural landscape, an additional 1,500 house lots will be developed and distributed along the East Coast corridor in 2023, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a ‘Dream Realised’ distribution exercise at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACC), the minister said this would add to the 1,500 lots developed at Lusignan and Good Hope.

“We are looking to develop in this year around 3,000 lots on the East Coast area; today we are targeting 1,500 just because its practical to do in one day,” Rodrigues said on Tuesday.

Some 5,900 house lots were previously distributed from 2020 to 2023.

She said this is in keeping with the government’s manifesto to distribute 50,000 house lots across the country by 2025.

Minister Rodrigues disclosed that massive road networks would be built linking the East Coast to the East Bank to complement the housing boom further.

This, she explained further, will see the ongoing works being done along the East Bank corridor, including the building of new roads, highways and massive housing schemes mirrored along the East Coast corridor.

“The development that will take place on the East Coast is no different; I know it’s very hard for you to visualise the positioning of some of these schemes. All of the schemes on the East Coast are leading in a direction towards the East Bank, and you will eventually be connecting to the Aubrey Barker road link,” she said, adding, “There is no one entry and exit to the East Coast any longer. We are developing a very complex network of highways and roads, and you will see a whole different community being developed. It will be all integrated into one big city, and so it will be marvelous to see.”

Already, some $24 billion has been invested into infrastructure works along the East Coast corridor, which has seen communities such as Reconnaissance, Non-Pariel, Bladen Hall, Vigilance, Annandale, Mon Repos and Strathspey benefitting.

In the 2023 national budget, $54.5 billion was allocated for housing development in new and existing areas, including constructing roads, drains, bridges, and installing utilities to meet housing demands.

The government has also undertaken infrastructure projects in regularised areas, such as Charity, Tuschen, Chateau Margot, Block ‘S’ Sophia, Belvedere, and Amelia’s Ward.

Six quarries were recently licensed to promote accelerated investment in the sector and are expected to contribute to the infrastructure boom slated for this year.