Already behind schedule - Jagdeo

Already behind schedule – Jagdeo

Jul 08, 2010 News

The Amaila Falls road project, awarded to Synergy Holdings, has to start “now” to ensure financial closure is met by the end of the year for the substantive hydro power project, President Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
Synergy Holdings has been awarded a US$15.4 million project to build roads and bridges necessary for the start-up of the Amaila Falls Hydro project, but the award of the contract has come under question and work is yet to start three months after the award of the contract.
“We’re still on tract. They are one week behind time, but that is just submitting some information,” Jagdeo stated.
According to Jagdeo, the project sponsor, Sithe Global has to deal with the financial closure of the project.
“Basically Sithe has to deal with this…the government of Guyana is not contracting a loan and is putting up minimal equity in the project at this stage,” Jagdeo told Kaieteur News in Montego Bay, Jamaica where he was attending a Heads of Government Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Sithe Global has put the price of the project at US$650 million, but the government has also spoken about the cost of the project being at least US$150 million less than that.
According to Rafael Herz, the Sithe Global Project Manager for Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, “The total cost of the dam, powerhouse, transmission line, and substations is estimated at US$650M (including an estimated US$190M for the transmission line and other supporting infrastructure).”
President Jagdeo, on Tuesday, said that the bulk of the equity for the project will come from Sithe and the finances will come from an institution to be named, with the Inter-American Development Bank and the China Development Bank being the preferred financiers. Sithe had said that it will ultimately contribute US$150 million of the equity.
Sithe Global had also claimed to have already spent in excess of US$5M on the development of the project.
Jagdeo told Kaieteur News the company is spending over US$1 million to do an environmental impact assessment on the clearing for a road and the hydro power project itself.
“Work is being done on all the agreements so they would have financial closure before the end of the year,” Jagdeo stated.
“Hopefully by that time the road would have progressed to a point where they can start quickly,” he added.
Jagdeo had expressed fears about the company sitting on US$450-US$500 million, while interest builds up, waiting on the access road to be completed to start the actual hydropower project.
Synergy Holdings’ contract is for the upgrade of approximately 85 kilometers of existing roadway and the design and construction of approximately 110 kilometers of new road.
The works also include building bridges across the Essequibo and Kuribrong rivers. In addition, the contract takes into account clearing the way for the installation of a 65-kilometre transmission line.
The Amaila Falls hydro-project is expected to supply 150 megawatts of electricity to the country and this will significantly free up resources used to buy fuel to generate electricity.
Guyana’s annual fuel import bill is US$350M.
The Amaila storage dam site would be located near the top of Amaila Falls and would impound the waters of both the Kuribrong and Amaila Rivers.
The Amaila site is located on the Kuribrong River, a tributary of the Potaro River in west central Guyana. The nearest point of access is the airstrip at Kaieteur Falls on the Potaro River, approximately 15 miles to the south.
An overland trail exists from Kaieteur to Amaila. Access is also provided over land by an all-weather road through Tumatumari on the Potaro River and on to Mahdia and Kangaruma.
River access along the Potaro-Kuribrong Rivers to the foot of Amalia Falls involves several portages around rapids and waterfalls.
The road from Tumatumari was recently extended to Mahdia/Kangaruma that brings you closer to the site but approximately 30 miles of additional roads will need to be built to the top of Amaila Falls. (By Neil Mark in Montego Bay, Jamaica)

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