New bridge, better road network for Enterprise – Min Indar

Enterprise on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) will get a revamp to correct critical dilapidated aspects of the infrastructural makeup, along with a new bridge to ease commuters and students.
This was announced by Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar during a visit to the area on Tuesday. After being called in by the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), the Minister inspected several access roads and bridges.

The Minister related that several issues were raised in relation to the road, utilities and lighting. The bridge connecting to Enterprise Garden is in a deplorable state and plans are moving afoot to construct a bridge between Non Pariel to Enterprise so that children can have easier access to their schools.
“We’ll be connecting a bridge so it will be faster for them to get to school. Some of the roads we will start to do because some of them have sectional repairs so we’ll deal with that quickly under the maintenance programme,” Indar explained.
As it pertains to the drainage system, he identified a few matters which the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) will have to commence excavation works.
“As soon as it rains a little, the place is flooded and it washes away the parapet at Non Pariel that is near to the main road, which is in a bad state in the first place…So, I’m committing to works in this community here and we’ll do in a phased manner.”
The phased approach will entail works on the main road, then extended to areas which are lower on the priority list. While tackling these, the Minister informed that they are confronted with illegal structures on Government reserves – hindering the execution of developmental undertakings.
“What we see also is the usual thing I’m seeing all over the country. People are taking up the reserves and when they take up the reserves, we can’t do public works. We can’t move machines in to build bridges. We can’t clean. We can’t do anything. Everybody put up a piece or some fence or something. We’re pleading with residents that when we do public works and we have to move in the fence, we’ll just have to do that,” the Minister positioned.
Indar added that if residents refuse to move their illegal constructed structures, it will only delay the works further. Nevertheless, Indar said he was very satisfied with the pace of ongoing works in the community and this is credited to Government’s mandate of holding contractors accountable to ensure that deadlines are upheld.
“Our engineers are aggressive. They’re going out and they’re explaining the modus operandi of the Irfaan Ali Government. We are awarding new contracts. Most of these contracts, within three to six months you gotta finish the work because if you don’t finish the work, obviously when we look at the outstanding works you have as a contractor, definitely we won’t be adding to you.”