Silica City: $600M to be spent on 200 young professional housing units

The Housing Ministry is set to invest close to $600 million for the construction of 200 young professionals’ housing units in Silica City, located on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. This was revealed by Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal during the launch of the first Linden Building Expo at Amelia’s Ward, Linden, on Thursday.

“The first phase of the housing development – Tract B Kuru Kururu has been cleared and surveyed and development works have begun. This initial block of land within Silica City will be developed as a Young Professional Scheme. Close to six hundred million dollars will be expended on the construction of two hundred young professionals’ housing units,” the Minister disclosed.
Further, it will also include commercial lots, mixed-use development, apartments and condos, and provisions for reserve spaces for institutional and community use.
According to Croal, Silica City is envisaged to tackle the issue of non-coastal urban settlement development and the challenges of climate change and sea-level rise through the creation of a vibrant, sustainable, resilient, and modern city that is in keeping with the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
The Minister added that the preliminary development concept of Silica City is completed and detailed planning activities are in progress, and a detailed topographic survey has already been completed. He assured citizens that in the coming months, they will continue to receive news about Silica City and its massive development as well as see more “Dream Realised” Housing Drives take place across the country.
“While these projects are Government-led, there are many private sector-led projects happening too,” the Minister explained.
Meanwhile, during a recent visit to India back in January, President Dr Irfaan Ali had discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about ways in which India can provide support to Guyana, for its vision of building Silica City.
According to the President, one possibility from those discussions is India sending its urban planners to help with developing Silica City.
Silica City, Guyana’s first smart urban centre, is intended to be a smart city powered by renewable energy and developed with the Administration’s revised Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Goal 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which speaks to building sustainable cities and communities, in mind.
Silica City will initially cater to just over 3000 households in the first five years, and eventually grow to house more than 12,500 households when completed.
Back in January, preliminary works at Silica City had commenced, paving the way for the construction of the first 100 homes.
The first phase of the project will see an initial 400 young professional homes being constructed. It was previously reported that the Housing Ministry had already begun shortlisting persons for these homes.
Meanwhile, a whopping $2.1 billion contract was inked in February to develop the city during a contract signing ceremony at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
The Housing Minister, at the signing ceremony, had explained that significant investments will be made in key project areas – a major one being the Silica City project, which will be inhabited by 2025.
“A lot of people have been asking if they will see Silica City off, and they have been hearing about Silica City. One thing you can be rest assured is that, by 2025, you will hear much more than just Silica City. You will see people living there,” the Minister envisioned.
Silica City is the brainchild of President Ali, who had proposed the establishment of a secondary city in the country while serving as Housing Minister in 2013. So far, there has been tremendous interest from countries and top international companies from around the world in the development of Silica City.