Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali has announced that this year work will begin on a secondary highway, called the ‘Collector’s Lane’ to alleviate the congestion on the East Bank Demerara highway.
The Housing and Public Works ministries are collaborating on a plan for the construction of the Collector’s Lane which will connect Diamond to Eccles then on to LBI, on the East Coast of Demerara.
A release from the housing ministry yesterday said that as part of the overall plan, the ministry has begun construction of several ‘feeder roads’ including the new Providence access road, which will lead to the Collector’s Lane, and which will link several communities along the corridor.
Ali explained that the new Providence access road is one of the major feeder roads that will connect the existing East Bank Demerara highway along the Demerara river with the secondary highway, the Collector’s Lane in the inner part of the East Bank.
One of the Housing ministry’s engineers, Omar Narine, said that because of the magnitude of the housing programme, the new Providence road was necessary to provide access to new land to convert to housing.
He is quoted as saying, “The road is 1.5km long and 6m wide, this will connect Providence phase 1 and 2 moderate income section, the re-migrant scheme and give direct access to the Mocha Road.
The estimated time of the project completion is 4-6 months to bring it to asphalt level, we have expended $129M on the first phase and another $300 M is projected to be expended in the second phase.”
