$1.4B development investment: 185 more houses under construction in Cummings Lodge 1500 house project – President

…400 already completed

As Government continues to aggressively push its housing drive, another 180-plus houses are currently being constructed at the Cummings Lodge new housing area, Greater Georgetown.
This was revealed by President Dr Irfaan Ali during a site visit to the Cummings Lodge housing development. He was accompanied by Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal and other Ministry officials – including Director of Projects at the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Omar Narine along with a team of engineers.

“So, in this area… we have 1500 house lots out of which [we have] already built 400 homes and 185 is under construction,” the Head of State disclosed.
It was also highlighted by the President that the area has already seen the installation of water mains, while a contract for a new water treatment plant has been awarded for completion by the end of 2023.
President Ali also instructed that a Police outpost be strategically placed in the area as the development works rapidly progress.
Only earlier this month, Minister Croal had visited the Cummings Lodge housing development. He also checked out a new access point at Aubrey Barker Road, South Rui veldt, which connects to Cummings Lodge.
The Housing Minister had explained that this new road was expected to improve the pace of work being done at Plot 1767 in Cummings Lodge, as contractors previously only had one main access route, towards the north at Plot 1768.
At the time, contractors were carrying out massive infrastructural works, including land clearing, construction of access roads and bridges and drainage networks. These works will allow residents within the high-income area to access their lands in another three months and further enhance connectivity for residents.
Moreover, the Housing Minister had disclosed that the housing development would stretch all the way to Eccles, East Bank Demerara (EBD). This will see new commercial and medical zones being unlocked in the backlands.
In fact, Government has injected some $1.4 billion in the development of the area where massive infrastructural works are ongoing at the new Cummings Lodge housing development, which starts from Sophia, Greater Georgetown and ends in the vicinity of Eccles.
These development works are strategically connected to the Ogle-to-Eccles Bypass Road. This massive road project will see the East Coast Demerara (ECD) corridor at Ogle being linked to the East Bank Demerara corridor via the Haags Bosch road at Eccles Industrial Site.
Back in June of this year, a US$106 million contract was signed between the Public Works Ministry and India-based Ashoka Buildcon Limited for the construction of some 7.8 kilometres of road, with each of its four lanes being 3.6 metres wide.
The Bypass Highway will also feature a median in the middle and sidewalks as well as several connector roads especially at the East Bank end to allow for further diversion of traffic.
Works were slated to commence August month-end, with a 24-month timeline stipulated in the contract.
The ECD-EBD road link project is being undertaken in several phases, with the first being from Ogle to Eccles; then onto Diamond and finally, to Timehri, connecting to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
Already, Ogle is undergoing a development boom with a number of international branded hotels, a massive state-of-the-art maternal and neonatal hospital and private housing developments.
Developer Guyanese-American Danny Sawh has announced plans to invest some US$350 million into a luxury waterfront gated community with a built-in lagoon on 100 acres of formerly Ogle estate lands. He recently said that land clearing as well as structural and geological testing are being undertaken at the Windsor Ogle community location for the next year and a half, after which works on the buildings would commence.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Government in July turned the sod for the construction of a specialised €149 million Paediatric and Maternal Hospital that will be constructed at Goedverwagting, ECD.
The facility, which will be financed by the United Kingdom’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), will be built and equipped in two years by Austria-based Vamed Engineering.
The low-rise Paediatric and Maternal Hospital will have 256 beds and will be a referral centre for women and children. It will specialise in maternal, neonatal, and paediatric care with a huge imaging suite for services such as CT scans and MRIs, a modern laboratory, and surgical suites.
Among the hotels to go up at Ogle is a US$50 million AC Marriott, which will boast some 152 rooms and is slated to be completed in 2024. (G8)