Soesdyke/Coverden NDC commissions sports ground in community
-$10M+ spent on acquisition, preparation of land
Having worked industriously for the past four years in order to make the dream of a community playground a reality for residents, council members of the Soesdyke to Coverden Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) are now seeing the fruits of their hard work, as the first community (Soesdyke/Coverden) sports ground was declared open on Sunday.
From left, the Soesdyke Te Huis Te Coverden NDC Chairman, Bhupendra Deokie, performing the ribbon cutting exercise
The simple but significant opening ceremony was held at Latchman Sand Road, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara (EBD), and this event saw NDC Chairman Bhupendra Deokie delivering brief remarks. Unveiling of a plaque to mark the occasion followed.
In a brief interview on Tuesday, Raghunandan Singh, Vice Chairman of the NDC, explained that, the plot of land, then privately owned, was being pursued since 2016, and the council’s team was making efforts to acquire the three and a half acres by purchase, since the NDC had no legal authority over same.
“Mr. Deokie and his sons, along with other business people, developed the ground to a stage where it can accommodate cricket and other sport for many years…the community as a whole never had any official playground, they commenced the negotiation with the proprietor to acquire the plot of land by purchase, and that negotiation went for a while until 2018,” Singh explained.
The unveiled plaque
Singh disclosed that acquisition cost approximately $10 million dollars, and more had to be spent on land preparation, but some of these expenses were absorbed by collaborative business owners.
Singh posited that the newly commissioned ground will benefit the community extensively, especially the youths.
“The ground would bring tremendous economic benefits to the community, because massive tournaments can play there now, because the ground is well prepared even though more works need to be done…it’s a collaborative effort of public-private partnership, it will keep the youths occupied in terms of developing their skills in training of whatever sport they want to go into” the Vic-chairman noted. (Leah Hernandez)
