The Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Democratic Council (RDC) currently has its eyes set on the rehabilitation of the Linden airstrip, and according to Regional Chairman Renis Morian, engineers who have visited the site have asserted that it is one of the best that they have seen.
Just a few months ago, the Council had expressed interest in bringing the partially abandoned airstrip back on stream, as a means to drive economic development in the Region. Morian told Guyana Times that the RDC had sent a concept note to the Public Infrastructure Ministry and is looking forward to having the project become a reality.
Regional Chairman Renis Morian and Councillors at the Linden airstrip in July
“With the airstrip at Ogle overcrowded, the next frontier for small craft is Region 10. We’ve sent the concept note to the Ministry of infrastructure and we’re looking forward to seeing work done on the airstrip. Not only works done, but Lindeners being a part of the work force upgrading the airstrip. We would have taken engineers and they said that it’s the best they have seen…so we would like to see the airstrip up and running,” the Regional Chairman outlined.
He said too that the RDC was now working to send letters out to the Aircraft Owners’ Association, in an effort to facilitate dialogue and visits to the site.
“We would like to carry them on a tour to view the airstrip, with the view that this airstrip will be working by Government in 2017,” he added.
Back in September, Morian had disclosed that Councillors had visited the site and had sent off a proposal after meeting with officials from the Public Infrastructure Ministry, adding that the proposal would be injected into plans of the relevant Ministry for the 2017 budget.
“So we won’t see anything now in 2016, but all the proposals for the airstrips right across the lengths and breadths of Guyana will be fed into that Ministry’s budget for 2017. But we did send the proposal based on what we’ve come up with on the ground,” the Regional Chairman had said.
In July, regional officials sought to have the partially abandoned airstrip at Linden be made fully operational once again and embarked on preparing the proposal in that regard.
According to information coming out of the RDC, a meeting was planned in an effort to foster the way forward, so that the airstrip could be made operational as the Council had agreed that it is a project which it would like to embark on. Councillor Gordon Callender has disclosed that the airstrip was considered one of the best in the country and $200 million was expected to go towards its upgrade.
