Draft masterplan for Silica City to be ready by mid-2024 – Min Rodrigues

The draft masterplan to be used in the development of Silica City – one of the Government’s climate change mitigation strategies – should be ready by mid-2024.
This is according to the Minister within the Housing Ministry, Susan Rodrigues, during an episode of Guyana Dialogue in which she further disclosed that the Government is channelling the expertise of other countries into ensuring the success of this project.
“We want to do this properly, and we want to deploy the use of experts and people who have done this in other countries around the world. So, we’re using their expertise to design Silica City, so that it can achieve all of the objectives that we would like to achieve…They have about six months to get back to us on a draft; so, I think about mid this year, we should have a draft of this masterplan,” Rodrigues detailed.
To this end, several investments have been made to develop road linkages to accommodate this project.

“Silica City is intended to be a modern sustainable city. This is a result of climate change, rising sea levels, and us looking to move to higher ground. We are building a highway from Mandela Avenue to Eccles, Eccles to Diamond, and then this highway will go all the way to Timehri, and will give people access to the Linden-Soesdyke Highway,” she further detailed.
Silica City is currently being developed in Kuru Kururu, along the Soesdyke- Linden Highway. Last year, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the University of Miami to develop, for the project, a master plan which entails a comprehensive map out covering the entire 12,000-acre area earmarked for this project.
In February 2023, a $2.1 billion contract was inked to develop Silica City. It is envisioned that, over the next two decades, this new city along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway would grow to hold more than 12,500 households. Silica City will initially cater to just over 3000 households in the first five years, but 3800 acres of land have been earmarked for the city, and designs for the first phase of the project are in the pipeline.
An initial 400 Young professional homes will be constructed. It has previously been reported that the Housing Ministry has already begun shortlisting persons for these homes.
The city will be a smart one, powered by renewable energy and developed in accordance with the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Goal 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Silica City is a development the PPP/C Government had initiated talks on prior to leaving office in 2015, but which was never continued under the succeeding A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition Government. In his first year in office, in 2020, President Dr Irfaan Ali revealed that Government had begun discussions on Silica City as a secondary city. But even as the authorities push ahead with Phase One of Silica City, which also includes the development of apartment buildings, malls, condominiums, restaurants, and other amenities, the Government has been encouraging investors to fund the mega project.
Back in September 2022, it was disclosed that the Government was in talks with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the development of the Innovation Village within Silica City. Also, that same month, Saudi Arabian-based Dar Consultants had made a presentation on the village at State House in Georgetown, during which company officials explained what the Innovation Village concept within Silica City would accomplish.
For one, it will connect start-ups and business incubators to established companies, maximising their opportunities. According to the group, the Innovation Village would be a geographic area located within Silica City, where digital and innovative leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators and accelerators.
It will be physically compact, transit-accessible, technically-wired, and will offer a mixed use of housing, office and retail spaces.
Meanwhile, in November 2022, a South Korean company – Yeachon Architect and Urban Planners – also pitched, via video presentation, a seven-year plan for the development of Silica City. According to their proposals, the city will be carbon-free, and will be completed with housing, energy, transportation, healthcare, education and recreational facilities. Mention was made of smart farms, a hypermarket, and a commercial centre.