-gov’t promises frustrated East, West Ruimveldt residents
The Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, has assured the residents of East and West Ruimveldt, Georgetown that the still to be completed Cemetery Road Project will be finished by his ministry in time for the re-opening of school.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) release, this commitment was made at a recently held community meeting in Roxanne Burnham Gardens. There, the minister acknowledged the frustration being experienced by residents of the East and West Ruimveldt district as a result of the uncompleted Cemetery Road Project which is now way past its official date of completion.
The release noted that the project is currently being executed by Avinash Construction and Metal Works, and the company has repeatedly failed to make adequate progress on the road. The contractor continues to move at a slow pace, which has so far resulted in the time period for completion of the project being extended twice. The last deadline for the project was then given as March 31, 2024, however, the contractor continued to fail at progressing with works on the road, citing persistent rainfall.
Edghill said that he will soon be consulting with the Attorney General on the way forward.
“I am saying it here loud and clear; we will not allow that contractor to continue to frustrate the people of East and West Ruimveldt. We will have to take over the project and we will finish Cemetery Road,” the public works minister forcefully asserted.
During an inspection earlier in the year, he had stated that if the road was not completed by the adjusted time period, then the contract would be terminated and given to a contractor of the ministry’s Special Project Unit.
As such, he assured the residents that within the next two months, the thoroughfare will be officially completed.
“By September when school reopens, four lanes of traffic must be flowing in Cemetery Road. And that is the commitment that we are giving to you,” Edghill promised.
The completion of the four-lane road is expected to decrease the traffic congestion which occurs during peak hours, the release added.
