Residents in the new area of Tucber Park, New Amsterdam, are soon to benefit from 650ft of asphaltic road.
The road project which falls under the 2014 Capital Works Programme of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Six is being executed by Peter Lewis of Associated Construction Services. On Tuesday last, Regional Vice Chairman and chairman of the region’s Works Committee, Bhupaul Jhagroo visited Tucber Park to inspect the road project. There he met associates of the contractor and listened to the concerns raised by residents as it relates to the ongoing road works.
In an invited comment to Stabroek News, Jhagroo said “the road was in a deplorable state and somebody made a complaint to the regional chairman
and so we are trying to repair the road”. He however admitted that only a portion of the Tucber Road will be rehabilitated. “It will not be the entire road, only up to a point, somewhere in the vicinity of the [Smythfield] nursery school. Next year, we will budget for the other portion.”
Unfortunately, what the Vice Chairman thought would be good news for the residents ended up angering some. One resident, Doreen Darlington was very vocal with her criticism of the regional administration and its decision to only rehabilitate a portion of the dilapidated road. “We always does be for next year budget, and next year budget don’t meet. Only certain people does get they road do and some people road does never do. That’s not fair!”
Darlington argued that “we are all Guyanese and we got rights too”. Adding that “I for one don’t make joke with my rates, every year I does pay off my own”. She explained to the Vice Chairman that she has lived in Tucber for the past twelve years and has never seen any form of rehabilitation work done on the second half of the road. “I does sell in the market, when I come with my load, the vehicle does put me off by the school because the other half of the road bad and I living on the other half. Every time this road repairing they does do this part and not at the back, so the ‘pigs’ at the back don’t need road? Yal treating us like pig!”
In response, Jhagroo promised that the second half of the road will be constructed next year, as it will be catered for in the region’s 2015 budget.
Jhagroo further explained that the current road works in the area represents phase two of a $13.1M project, and iterated that the RDC sees the rehabilitation of the road as vital for development in the area. Under the 2015 capital works programme, the entire community will access asphaltic roads.
Meanwhile, Associated Construction Services also recently completed repair works along the Angoy’s Avenue major road in New Amsterdam and desilted the two main drainage canals that run alongside that thoroughfare. Commenting on that project, Jhagroo said “flooding has been a major problem so this will help to alleviate some of the flooding situation in that Vryman’s Erven/ Angoy’s Avenue area”.
