The sum of $400 million, which is to be allocated under the 2022 national budget for the construction of a new multi-storey Brickdam Police Station, is just the first tranche of investment for the project, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn has said.
Benn made this disclosure as he was responding to questions about the allocations towards the Ministry of Home Affairs in this year’s budget at the sidelines of the event on Thursday.
He said a number of designs for the steel structure are currently being explored. “…This is the first tranche in relation to that investment. We already have three concept drawings and we are looking at the foundation and the footprint issues in relation to the building and then the internal detailing as to what we would have in consultation with the police for a new modern Brickdam Police Station, which will take us way into the next 30 or 40 years or more,” he said.
“The foundation works will have to be piled… it will be a steel structure, there will be a more open concept, the reticulation and those issues will have to be different and modern and also the fire protection,” Benn added.
Government has allocated $47.9 billion towards public safety and security in the 2022 budget.
More than 80 per cent of the Brickdam police station was destroyed in a fire on October 2 last year.
A Guyana Fire Service (GFS) investigation concluded that the fire was an act of arson.
The police had stated that a prisoner, Clarence Greene, who was in the lock-up at the time of the fire, confessed to starting it out of frustration. He was charged with arson and remanded to prison.
At the Region 4A annual thanksgiving and awards ceremony in December, Benn had announced that a modern 11-storey structure would be constructed to house the new police station.
