Two contracts valued $70.8M were signed for road works at Parfait Harmonie Housing Scheme in Region Three last week at a meeting that Housing Minister Irfaan Ali was present at.
“Today is a signing ceremony, a pact, between the people of this community, the Ministry and the contractors whose services are paid for and procured so that they can deliver to us a service that is of high quality in accordance with the specifications of the contract,” Ali told residents who came to witness the ceremony. A Government Information Agency (GINA) press release said the works will be undertaken by Eagle Transportation and General Construction Incorporated and Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited. A 3.4km stretch of double bituminous surface treatment (DBST) surfaced roads and 1.7km of asphalted concrete surface roads which represents about 67% of the roads being done, will be constructed.
“We are going to further enhance the scheme with the addition of 1000 lots in Onderneeming,” he said, adding that the ministry is also considering an alternative entrance and exit to the scheme. Ali also noted that almost 600 lots were given out in Schoonord last year. He said negotiations are ongoing with Gafoors, who owns part of the land where the alternative access road will be constructed.
These talks have advanced well and the ministry is in the process of completing the design for the road and works will start long before the end of the year.
“Parfait Harmonie will become a scheme second to none….today we had a meeting with a number of private companies including Courts, a number of the Banks; all of them came in to discuss with us the future plans of their expansion into Parfait Harmonie,” Ali asserted. According to GINA the areas where road works will be done are required to have a 75% occupancy rate. Also, about 1,300 house lots will be allocated in the community. This year, $800M will be spent on developing the scheme with projects planned for Recht-door-Zee, phase 2, the alternative access road to the scheme and the completion of a new well.
Residents also raised concerns about greater access to water, better access roads and drainage and stray animals. As regard access to water, he said a new well has been completed at a cost of more than $70M. Ali also said the design and tendering process for the new access bridge, which will be a reinforced concrete structure, will be done soon and the contract will be awarded. This structure has a contract completion period of three months.
Ali also pointed out that the ministry is taking steps to address concerns about building contractors fleecing home builders. He noted that because of the recent construction boom, contractors are in demand and as such some may be compromising the quality of their work. As such the ministry is considering developing a national database of contractors with a facility that will allow the public to go online and comment on the quality of their work.
“The level of complaint that we are receiving has now necessitated our active intervention into this issue and we are going to look at different regulations governing builders and contractors; how they can be licensed, how their licence can be suspended, whether we can develop a national database of these contractors and people can go online and comment,” he said.
“I am going to task my engineers and the CEO of the Central Housing and Planning Authority to draft a basic building contract so that persons who would like to see what a contract looks like, between themselves and the contractor can go on our website and access it,” he added. Ali noted too that some home owners also compromise on the quality of work and this facility will protect both parties.
On the issue of land owners not occupying their plots and enhancing the area, Ali told residents that he will be working to devise a new strategy where the ministry will clear the land and the owners will be surcharged. “We are going to charge them the cost, the market cost at an even a higher rate for clearing the land, that is what we are going to do, because unless people feel the penalty associated with things, they don’t have any value…and that is a culture we have to change in the country.”
