The first phase of the proposed Guyana Football Federation (GFF) National Technical Centre which is under construction at D’Urban Park, Georgetown is almost completed.
This was disclosed by (GFF) President Wayne Forde during a site visit yesterday to inspect the first phase which encompasses the clearing of half the land, sand-filling and levelling of surface.
President Forde said, “The land was low, there was a lot of flooding taking place and we saw the need to do this phase of the work. The other reason why we’re doing this, is because we know many of the kids, boys and girls from the adjoining communities – Hadfield, D’Urban Street (and) the entire Wortmanville Community – don’t have access to good safe spaces for playing football. We will be granting the entire community access to this sand filled space so they can actually come out here and have recreational games,”
He further revealed that the availability of sand posed a problem for the contractors McGregor’s Real Estate Development, explaining, “The main factor that contributed to the delay is not the rain, but the availability of sand. The demand, as we would have noticed from traversing the East Bank, sand trucks are literally hauling sand 24 hours a day and that’s because of the massive amount of projects being undertaken by the Government of Guyana. So, they were challenged in accessing sand.”
Despite the aforesaid hindrance, he is satisfied with the current state of the project, adding, “This Phase of the project is costing the GFF 23.6M and we anticipate that, all things going well, by next year we will pursue the sand filling of the second half of the facility here. This is all in preparation for the work that will take place in the next couple months and years.”
Forde explained that a summer grassroots programme for children will be the first project commissioned on the surface, noting, “One of the first football activities that we plan to have out here is the grassroots summer programme that is going to be announced on Friday. So, we’re hoping that, at the D’Urban Park facility, we’ll mark out a nice little space and equip it with the goals and all the other facilities we need to have so the young boys and girls can come out here, whether its two to three days a week and introduce themselves to football.”
The D’Urban Park football facility is being funded by the One CONCACAF Fund, and is the cornerstone of President’s Forde infrastructural vision. It is expected to be completed in four years and will consist of an 8000-12000 capacity football stadium.
