Plans for the construction of an airstrip at Leguan, in the Essequibo River have hit a snag as the authorities are still to acquire land for the project.
Region Three Chairman Julius Faerber told Stabroek News on Friday that while the plans for the airstrip remain on the cards, the government is experiencing difficulties in acquiring land for the project. He said the project is still being studied and the administration recently advertised for land to be sourced at Leguan.
Reports are that a prospective area on the island was identified for the project but the land rights were being disputed.
In October last year, a parcel of land along the Leguan Public Road and an area better known as ‘Long Road’ was surveyed but residents had raised objections over the move by the landowner, saying that they were not notified of the plans.
A group of farmers said on Friday that most persons had been farming in the area in question for as much as 20 years. However, they were only given notice mid-last year of the plans by the landowner. They noted too that the move was in breach of an agreement the farmers had with the landowner. While some persons had relocated their farms from the area, many remain on the land.
Residents told this newspaper last October that the area where the 2,000-ft planned project was situated will block access to several acres of farmland. Additionally, there were also concerns about wind direction at the site, as aircraft generally land and take off into the wind not facilitated by the geographic layout of the farmlands.
Meanwhile, Faerber noted that a similar project at Wakenaam remains incomplete—almost 10 months after the timeline for its completion was announced by the Public Works Ministry. Faerber said that inclement weather conditions had been hampering works at the site—a reason previously cited by the regional administration for the sloth in works at the project site at Meer-Zorg on the north eastern section of Wakenaam.
Faerber noted that the $54.5 million bitumen capped runway project needed at least a full week of sunshine in order to be fully completed. Budget proposals in recent years had seen allocation of significant sums of money for the two infrastructural projects. In this year’s budget, a sum of $88 million was allocated for the project at Leguan while in 2010, some $149 million was set aside for construction of the airstrip on the two islands as well as maintenance of similar structures across the country including interior airstrips.
