Public Works Ministry to repair streets in 3 Region 6 towns, 18 NDCs

The Public Works Ministry is to repair two streets in each of the eighteen Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). Additionally, the Ministry will also be spending huge sums on miscellaneous roads in the three townships in the region.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill speaking with reporters in Berbice on Sunday disclosed that on average, just over $20 million will be spent in each of the NDCs in addition to a larger sum in the municipalities of Corriverton, Rose Hall Town and New Amsterdam.
This is only in the area of road works in the Region, where $1 billion will be spent on the alignment of a farm access road from the Corentyne Highway to the Canje River.
The NDC miscellaneous roads will be getting $400 million while $50 million will be spent on urban roads in each of the three towns.
According to the Minister, an additional $50 million will be spent on the East Bank of Berbice on the main access road. This is apart from the current sums being spent to rehabilitate 1.25 miles of road there.
Meanwhile, $100 million will be spent on the first phase of the Moleson Creek road which will connect to the proposed Corentyne River Bridge which will bridge Guyana and Suriname.
Edghill told reporters on Sunday that road development in the Region for 2021 will see each NDC receiving just over $20 million on average to resurface two streets in each of the eighteen NDCs in the Region.
These streets, he further disclosed, will be completed with a bituminous surface.
In fact, Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall on Friday night told residents of the Number 52/74 NDC that they will have to decide on the priority streets. He said because of the size of that NDC, three streets will be resurfaced by Central Government.
He said priority will be given to streets with schools and places of worship.
According to Edghill, he had engineers from his Ministry in the Region during last week visiting all of the streets in each NDC to gather data of what is the state of each street.
During his visit, the Minister stopped at several NDCs including the 51/Good Hope NDC where he noted that on many occasions, streets closer to the Corentyne Highway are resurfaced and repaired several times and no work is done to the back streets.
In that NDC area, he noted that one of the two streets will be a back street.
Edghill noted that his Ministry should not be boasting about repairing roads in NDC areas but underscored that emphasis must be placed on the fact that the responsibility is that of the NDC. (Andrew Carmichael)