The Ministry of Agricul-ture and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) yesterday signed nine contracts worth $697.3 million for the construction of drainage pump stations and sluices.
GINA said that Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy said that for the construction of a sluice at Bagotville, West Bank Demerara, Jainul Hossain Civil Engineering Con-tracting Services won a $48M contract, while Nabi Construction Incorporated clinched another valued over $57 million for a similar installation at La Grange. Both contracts are of a six-month duration, GINA said.
At Bagotville, 1100 acres of residential areas and farmlands will benefit from better drainage once the sluice is built, GINA said. At La Grange, 2500 acres of residential areas and farmlands will benefit.
Among the other contracts, GINA said that a $181.8 million contract was signed with Roopan Ramotar Investment for the construction of a pump station at Joppa No.43, Berbice, and Samaroo’s Investment sealed a $191.5 million contract to construct a pump station at Lima, Essequibo Coast. Both contracts will run for seven months.
GINA said that a total of 7000 acres of residential areas and farmlands will benefit from the Joppa pump station and 4000 acres of residential areas and farmlands will benefit from the Lima, pump station.
Suresh Jagmohan Hardware Supplies and Construction Services won the contract to supply steel sheets to the NDIA valued over $177.8 million.
SRKN’gineering signed contracts for supervision services at La Grange and Bagotville for a total cost of $20.2 million, while Engineering and Agricul-tural Consultants Inc will oversee works at Lima at a cost of $10.584 million. Caribbean Engineering and Management Consultants (CEMCO) clinched the $8.8 million contract for supervision works to be done at Joppa No.43, Berbice.
All of the supervisory contracts are for a period of eight months, while the steel sheet piles will be supplied over 10 months for the erection of pump stations at Joppa No.43, Eversham, Gangaram and Lima.
“These are very important contracts and I want to appeal to both the consultants and the contractors for us to complete these works on a timely basis and within the contract sum. In the last two years, I believe we have a good track record of staying within our contract price and of completing our work,” Ramsammy said.
Ramsammy further stated that he will be visiting the work sites regularly along with Chief Executive Officer of the NDIA, Lionel Wordsworth.
“Too many of the sites I go to have no works going on sometimes”, GINA reported Ramsammy as saying.
GINA said this infrastructural programme started in 2011 and involves installation of new pumps at new sites and the replacement of some old pumps. A total of 39 pumps are expected to be installed by 2015 a part of the five- year programme.
GINA made no mention of whether there was any donor funding for this project or whether any of these installations were connected to the controversial contract with the Indian firm Surendra for the supply of pumps.
