Rose Hall Estate reopening: Contracts signed for pontoon barges, cane-transport punts for GuySuCo

As Government continues its moves to reopen the Rose Hall Sugar Estate, the Agriculture Ministry on Thursday signed $430 million in contracts to conduct works within the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha stated that much-needed work was to be done within the two entities, since they were of great importance to the country.
“We’ll be signing contracts close to about $500 million – to be exact $430 million in two sectors – GuySuCo and D&I … those are two very important entities for us,” he said, adding that “D&I (drainage & irrigation) we know for a fact were under a lot of strain and are still under a lot of strain over the last three months in terms of getting back our country to normalcy”.
On the other hand, he said, GuySuCo is working towards meeting the commitment made by Government to reopen some of the sugar estates that were shut down by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), leaving thousands of workers jobless and on the breadline.
He said that the Government was now in the process of reopening Rose Hall in order to create employment, while at the same time sugar would contribute to Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the economy.
The contractors with whom Thursday’s contracts were inked were David Persaud Investments Ltd with a $255,657,050 contract and Gafsons Industries Ltd with a $28,500,000 contract for the supply and delivery of assorted materials for fabrication of cane and transport punts (barges).
Upon the closure of the Rose Hall Estate in 2017, some 120 of the usable cane-transport punts were said to have been transferred to the Albion Estate. The others were retained at Rose Hall to assist contractors with harvesting canes for processing.
VR Construction Inc was awarded a contract valued $84,561,100 for the supply of pontoons/barges, while Guyana Tractor & Equipment (GUYTRAC) was contracted for the supply of two long-reach hydraulic excavators to the tune of $60,000,000.
With the acquisition of the pontoon and excavators, which are expected to operate in the Pomeroon River, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), the NDIA will now be fully equipped to carry out drainage works required in swampy pegasse soil, on which, under normal conditions, it is difficult to operate an excavator without the risk of the machine sinking. This equipment is expected to assist the NDIA with executing a blocked drainage programme within the Pomeroon area.
The Minister reminded contractors that when it came down to delivery, the Agriculture Ministry was the most important and they have an obligation to the people in executing those deliveries. The Ministry has seen the signing of several contracts for this year already in advancing the execution of its 2021 work programme. Earlier this month, the Agriculture Ministry signed several contracts valued in excess of $340 million that will see enhancement and development of agricultural activities across Guyana.
Mustapha noted that some $22 billion was allocated to the agriculture sector in the budget.