…Ministry making strides to clear backlog of 14,000 applications
– Work on Schoonord-to-Crane 4-lane highway to commence on Monday
Ministers Croal and Rodrigues facilitating the lot distribution to allottees
Some 1,200 house lots in the West Coast Demerara corridor have been distributed by the Housing and Water Ministry on Friday during another leg of the ‘Dream Realised’ housing drive in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara). Hosted at the Uitvlugt Community Centre Ground, West Coast Demerara (WCD), the event was attended by hundreds of persons. House lots were delivered in two areas: Meten-Meer-Zorg and Stewartville, and allottees were from low to high-income categories.
Minister within the Housing Ministry, Susan Rodrigues, has said this distribution would move the Government one step close to reducing the deficit in Region Three, which has the second largest demand for house lots. She added that new applications are welcome.
“There was a lot of neglect in the housing and water sector in the previous administration, so we had a buildup of applications. The demand was very, very high in the housing sector, so we have a lot of work to do,” she said. “When we came into office, we found a backlog of approximately 14,000 pending applications in this region. So far, we have distributed approximately 4,000 house lots, thereby reducing our deficit here in the region.
Deputy Director of Projects, Intakab Indarjeet, and a team of engineers meeting with contractors
“We welcome the new applications as well, because we are continuously and always in pursuit of our national target of 50,000 lots in the first five years in office,” Rodrigues has expressed.
Apart from land distribution, the Minister pointed to the robust effort to construct homes. This, she said, is one of the fastest ways to assist persons to own their homes. “We especially like to support our young people to ensure that they realise their dreams. While we have been focused on reducing our pending applications, we also have an aggressive housing construction drive. You will see hundreds of houses being constructed in Region Three,” she has promised.
Accompanying the advancements in housing is the commitment to better water quality for the region, as part of the Government’s five-year plan. By 2025, five new water treatment plants will be constructed in the region. She posited, “We know there are many challenges here with the quality of water, but we have a very ambitious target, a strategic plan at the Guyana Water Inc, with which we’re pursuing 100 per cent treated water by 2025.”
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, revised numbers from recent years, showing that only 496 lots were distributed in the region during the last administration’s five-year stint in office. During the International Building Expo in July, close to 3,000 persons received their lots from the Ministry. Now that there has been a turnaround in these numbers, other major infrastructural works are also in the pipeline. These include the new Demerara Harbour Bridge, the four-lane roadway from Crane to Schoonord, and the gas-to-shore project.
“You can see development is happening at a rapid pace. We also will see, by the end of this year, the tenders going out for new development within Meten-Meer-Zorg, Anna Catherina, Stewartville, Leonora, and this will form part of our 2023 infrastructure programme,” he said. “Just for new infrastructure, next year will be at least $4 billion injected in Region Three.”
Eight contractors who will be constructing the $11.8 billion Schoonord-to-Crane 4-lane Highway visited the area on Friday, and were taken to their individual lots to determine access points, traffic management, and other logistics, as mobilisation for works is expected to start on Monday.
These contractors were also given the opportunity to get acquainted with the surveyor and engineers of the CHPA who will be supervising each lot throughout the project’s timeline. Additionally, an engagement on environmental health and safety measures is slated for tomorrow.
The new four-lane highway will significantly reduce commute time along the route and create avenues for housing and commercial developments. It features 4.1 kilometres of dual carriageway reinforced concrete roads with emergency lanes. Scope of works also includes the rehabilitation of 2.4 kilometres of roadway, construction of 2 roundabouts, 11 reinforced concrete box culverts, 36 pre-stressed bridges, and road signage and markings.
The contracts for the project were signed on September 7, 2022 by VR Construction Inc, Avinash Contracting & Scrap Metal Inc, L-Heureuse Construction and Services Inc, GuyAmerica Construction Inc, AJM Enterprise, Vals Construction, Puran Bros Disposal Inc, and JS Guyana Inc.
