A huge new housing scheme which will comprise 600 lots is under construction at Five Miles Bartica. As infrastructural works take shape, several dozen persons have already applied for house lots there.
This newspaper visited Bartica recently where works were observed on the scheme located on the outskirts of the mining community along the Potaro Road.
Region Seven Chairman Gordon Bradford told this newspaper that the response from the residents of Bartica as well as others has been overwhelming. He said that almost every day, he is being asked about the scheme and when it will be completed.
Bradford said that it is unclear when the project will be finished but persons on the ground told Stabroek News that given the scope of the works and the pace at which the contractor is working, the housing area will be completed and ready for persons to build their homes by mid-2013.
Bradford said that in terms of infrastructural works, contracts have already been awarded for internal roads to be built in the scheme as well as the laying of a water network there.
The housing scheme will cater for 600 house lots and according to reports from Bartica, many persons in the community have already approached the Housing Ministry to apply for lots.
Sources at the ministry told this newspaper last week that several dozen persons, mostly from the area but some from the coastland, have already applied to the authorities for house lots at Five Miles, an indication that there is immense interest in the scheme.
Residents reported that the new community will be ideally placed since it presents persons with additional opportunities to access possible farmlands. It was reported too that the area is being built close to the Bartica airstrip which is situated about half-an-hour‘s distance from central Bartica. The housing scheme is located on the periphery of the airstrip boundary.
In May last year during a visit to Region 7, then President Bharrat Jagdeo made a commitment to expand the national housing programme in that area. Jagdeo, Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali and a team of officials inspected the site at Five Miles.
The Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) stated in a release that works commenced almost immediately after the officials‘ visit and a team of surveyors was on location to complete the Block Survey where more than 100 acres of land were allocated for development.
Ali explained that the initiative was an aspect of the administration’s drive to ensure that each citizen attain his or her dream of home ownership.
GINA said this move came as an extension of the housing programme at Four Miles Bartica where a scheme was developed recently.
