Residents of the Parfait Harmonie housing area on the West Bank of Demerara are benefitting from a 3.5-kilometre access road built at a cost of over $604M and commissioned yesterday by the government.
According to the Government Information Agency, Central Housing and Planning Authority’s (CH&PA) Chief Executive Officer, Mryna Pitt said the alternative access road was of critical importance to CH&PA since it was needed to enhance more direct access to the area and relieve traffic congestion as the area becomes fully occupied.
Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali said the Government saved $64M on the design and construction of the road because it was done by the CH&PA. The contractors were BK International and Gaico.
“It is designed to accommodate two lanes of traffic and is linked to the La Parfait Harmonie Housing area by way of a heavy-duty bridge, which in turn inter-connects with the existing north to south access to La Parfait Harmonie from the Canal No.1 road,” Pitt said, according to GINA.
She added that the scheme comprises 8,743 house lots and there is a projected population of 40,000 people when the entire area is fully developed.
It was also stated that a secondary school is to be built shortly at Westminster Phase Two and five acres of land has been identified and set aside for the Guyana Water Incorporated for the erection of a water treatment plant that will serve the West Bank area.
The Ministry is working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on an electricity supply project for the area and once there are no objections by the IDB, the project is expected to begin before the end of the year, according to Ali. Plans are also in place for the construction of a polyclinic.
Pitt added, according to GINA, that the area also has reserve sites for the construction of a Police Station and Magistrate’s Court and that land is also available for commercial and industrial areas.
Ali said, “In the 2014 budget $1 billion was set aside for rural enterprise development and for the creation of employment; presently we are doing an economic analysis in La Parfait Harmonie for the establishment of a call centre to provide jobs for more than 300 residents.” A plot of land has also been set aside in Recht-door-Zee to build a burial ground.
Ali added that the average investment per lot is approximately $2 million. He said that ongoing projects include upgrading of approximately 20 kilometres of road to asphalt. “For these areas where we still have challenges, I assure you that your turn will come. The total investment in housing in Region Three since 2000 is more than $30 billion,” the Minister asserted.
He said security in the area is being looked at by the government as, “only last night after we painted the road, some individuals tried to burn the paint and we urge residents to guard the new infrastructure.”
GINA said that Ali announced that the Guyana Police Force is working with the private sector and has built a forty- foot container outpost which will be placed at the head of the access road shortly.
Further, the paint used to mark the road is made of thermoplastic, an innovation in road marking.
Ali further acknowledged the magnanimity of rice farmer and businessman, Bhagwandin Madoo, who provided some of the land for the construction of the access road free to the Government.
“One of the major challenges to building this road was getting the land to connect all the major schemes to the front road because all the front lands are privately owned,” Ali said.
Emile McGarrel, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Housing and Water said, according to GINA, that the road provides access to six areas: La Parfait Harmonie, Onderneeming, Westminster, Recht-door-Zee phase one and two; and Schoonord and Lust-en-Rust.
