-Ali
The Ministry of Housing and Water plans to have another 1,000 house lots available in the Onderneeming Housing Scheme by October this year.
Meanwhile 600 more should be ready to be handed over in the Parfait Harmonie Housing Scheme by 2010.
Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali said infrastructure works are ongoing at both schemes. According to a press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA), Ali said there have been concerns regarding the allocation of middle-income lots in regions three and four as a result of the ministry’s aggressive house lot allocation exercise, the One Stop Shop.
According to Ali, the ministry is also moving ahead in its negotiations with the Guyana Sugar Corporation to find new sites for development in regions three and four. He said there has been a continuous increase in the demand for house lots in these regions. “This will put us way past our target set in the budget, where we have anticipated to allocate approximately 1,500 house lots this year. We are way ahead of that target at the moment,” Ali said.
Meanwhile, the Central Housing and Planning Authority will be executing infrastructure development at a cost of $1 billion to consolidate and upgrade the areas. A community development plan will be prepared to ensure that development is done in an orderly manner. Plans are in train to establish a commercial zone to ensure sustainability and self-sufficiency in the communities, Ali said, adding that it will be completed before the last quarter of 2009.
These plans include the finalizing of surveys in areas that are to be regularized, data cleansing exercise to reduce duplication of applications, field and internal audits which would bring into effect the automated online application system. “Within the next three months we will be aggressive in terms of our work in achieving our targets and enforcing the regulations of the housing policy,” Ali said.
