Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill last Friday announced that major upgrades to the Kingston Goods Wharf and Port Kaituma, Kumaka and Morawhanna stellings are slated for completion during the third quarter of 2024.
He made this disclosure during a year-end press briefing held at the Ministry’s office in Wight’s Lane, Kingston, Georgetown.
“We have four major multimillion projects ongoing in terms of the development of our stellings. The Kingston Goods Wharf is 35% completed, the Port Kaituma stelling is 77% completed, the Kumaka stelling is 18% completed and the Morawhanna stelling is 34% completed. All of these stellings should be completed no later than the third quarter of 2024,” Edghill said.
Concerning the controversial Leguan Stelling, the Public Works Minister in response to Stabroek News’ question on the status of the project said that “civil works on the stelling is substantially completed”.
He continued “The Contractor continues to behave in a certain manner and as a result of that there is a certain position that we took which is he has to complete works on the linkspan bridge and he has all the components for the linkspan bridge to set up, this is where all the boats and ferries have to traverse”.
“That link span bridge should be completed by the contractor very early in the new year …”, he said.
The Public Works Minister is adamant that the long-overdue project must be completed promptly so that residents and commuters in that region can be able to breathe a sigh of relief as it has been over 4 years since the stelling has been under construction.
The Ministry of Public Works on several occasions criticized contractor S Maraj over his failure to complete the troubled Leguan Stelling project and it declared that it won’t be bullied into paying more for a contract that has seen many variations.
The ministry in a release last year noted that Maraj of S Maraj Contracting Services alleged that work on the Leguan Stelling had been stalled due to outstanding money owed to him by the Government. The ministry refuted this claim.
Additionally, Edghill disclosed that there will be additional upgrades on the $2.5 billion MV Ma Lisha which was constructed in India after a contract was signed between the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD), Guyana, and Indian company, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) back in January 2021.
The government was able to fund the acquisition of the vessel via a loan/ grant it obtained from the Indian government.
He noted that the 70-metre-long giant, 14.5-metre-wide vessel is twice the size of the MV Kimbia and MV Barima, which currently ply the North-West route.
The new vessel can transport 274 passengers, 10 cars, four trucks, and 10 (10ft) size containers of cargo at 14 knots per hour, significantly reducing travel times.
