GEORGETOWN - Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn, has committed to providing all of the information available to Government to the political opposition when the House goes into Committee of Supply to consider and begin voting on the National Estimates.
The Minister gave the commitment on Friday, April 4, 2014 when he made his presentation to the 2014 Budget debates. He said that this will be done despite the fact that all of the demands for information in the past were handed over.
He was referring to project documents on the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion Project among others.
“They wail and carry on even when provided with information…We are prepared to do it again.” The Minister announced that this month the construction of the access road for the Amaila Hydro Electric Project will be substantially completed.
With regard the road project, the Minister said that he was surprised at the about turn on support for the Amaila Falls Access Road.
According to Benn, members of the political opposition including A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Joseph Harmon and Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, were taken to the road and they were enthused. Benn told the House that the two opposition members were impressed when they saw that the road was being built by young Guyanese engineers and technicians.
He said that despite expressing those sentiments the opposition still returned to the House and voted against the provisions for the road which stalled its progress.
The Minister said that there were bright persons in the benches of the opposition but bemoaned their political perception and their stances with regard important national projects. He said that while he will leave it up to the Prime Minister to give the important answers, “the question of cheap power for our country, the most important thing which affects the economy of our country, is the most important question, the lack of cheap renewable power in our nation development equation and the building of the road and the hydro plant will resolve this problem.”
The Minister in reporting to the House on the performance of his portfolio, said it was a difficult year with lots of confusion and very many court cases that at times led to the stalling of several projects. Overall he said government only managed to complete 84 per cent of its capital programme.
In his report to the House on the infrastructure works, he spoke to the works done on the Demerara Harbour Bridge which is only intended to be in use for another six years. More than six million vehicles crossed the bride going both ways last year and yielded earnings of $479M, according to Benn.
The Minister said that in the coming year, Government will be looking to make moves to have the level of vehicles traversing the bridge lessened by possibly having trucks barge across as well as introduce even more water taxis.
The bridge, he said, has a surplus of $113M which will be used in rehabilitation of the bridge. With respect to the new river crossing over the Demerara River, he said that there are currently 23 expressions of interests submitted.
The National Tender Board is working on a committee to undertake evaluations, “so we can go forward with some arrangement which would allow us to have a new bridge in six years time.”
Hon. Benn conceded that there were significant issues with respect to the road projects on the East Bank Demerara and the widening of the East Coast Demerara highway. He said that there were issues related to the utilities— the removal of utility poles and lines. This was also compounded by drainage and weather.
He lamented a scarcity of construction materials mainly stone. The quarry sector has to improve by 40 per cent to meet national construction needs, he added. As a result of the heavy national infrastructure project as well as domestic consumption, there was a need to import stone from Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines among other places.
According to Minister Benn, the US$17.2M widening of 5.4 kilometres of the East Bank Public Road is expected to be significantly completed by the end of the year.
“We are undertaking an effort to improve the Sheriff Street /Mandela Ave.”
This project will stretch for 7.2km and according to the Minster the pre qualification of contractors is in progress. He said that actual work is expected to commence in June.
Benn noted that the project will be funded by the Inter American Development Bank to the tune of US$25M.
Another significant project to be funded, this time by the Caribbean Development Bank, to the tune of US$34M, is the Parika to Vreed-en-Hoop road.
The design for this road is completed according to Minister Benn, who added that the prequalification of contractors with works scheduled to commence in the latter half of the year.
Benn reported, too, that there has been an ongoing discussion with respect to the East Bank Berbice road. He said that while Government would have anticipated that works would have been started already, there were some complications but it is now expected that work on that road will begin at the beginning of the fourth quarter in 2014. (Kaieteur News)
