Middle income roads for upgrade in La Parfaite Harmonie

Feb 12, 2011 News

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By Leonard Gildarie

Several banks and businesses, including Courts (Guyana) Limited, have signaled an interest to open branches in La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, one of the country’s biggest housing schemes.
This is according to Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, on Wednesday during the signing of two contracts totalling $70M for the upgrade of several roads in that community’s middle income section.
Within weeks, another contract will also be signed for building of a reinforced concrete bridge to link the scheme to Canal Number One main road- the bids are being assessed at the moment.
Later this year, another contract will also be signed to cut another access road from La Grange, nearer to the Demerara Harbour Bridge to the scheme.
During a meeting at the Westminster Primary School in the housing scheme, it was disclosed that the two contractors, Eagle Transportation and General Construction Inc. and Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited, will be jointly upgrading 3.4 kilometers of double bituminous surface treatment (DBST) surfaced roads and 1.7 km of asphaltic concrete roads that will benefit over 500 house lots and 2,000 persons.
The roads have been a state of disrepair for some time now, with some impassable from the huge craters.
According to Ali, it will mean that 67 per cent of the road networks in scheme will be surfaced.
The Minister admitted that with limited resources, a decision had to be made not to upgrade a number of streets in the middle income section. The criteria…only those that had occupancy rates over 75 per cent were the one that were immediately considered.
Earlier this week, the Ministry also signed contracts to upgrade several roads in the New Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara.
Development
So far, since 2000, has spent over $250M to develop the Middle Income section of the community with a total of $4.5B expended in the entire scheme since then.
This led to the development of 6,600 house lots with over 27,000 persons living there now. This would have translated to a cost of around $800,000 per house lot, he said.
This year, another well is being drilled in the scheme. This will be “second to none”, on its completion, he said. Almost $800M is earmarked to be spent in the community this year.
On Wednesday, Ali said that during a meeting last year in the community, residents had raised concerns over access to water, damaged roads, drainage problems and stray animals.
“We are going to further enhance the scheme with the addition of 1000 lots in Onderneeming… and it became necessary for us to address our minds to an alternative entrance and exit to the Parfaite Harmonie housing scheme.”
Another entrance
Currently negotiations are ongoing with Gafoors, the hardware giant, which owns the land where the proposed road will run through.
“…Parfaite Harmonie will become a scheme second to none. Today (Wednesday) we had a meeting with a number of private companies including Courts, a number of the banks… all of them came in to discuss with us the future plans of their expansion into Parfaite Harmonie,” Ali disclosed Wednesday.
While the majority of the issues have been addressed by the Ministry, the problem with strays remained.
While the fee for catching strays remains lucrative one standing at $5,000 per head of animal, authorities are finding it hard to find stray catchers.
La Parfaite Harmonie has the highest incidence of pipes being broken by animals.
Empty lots
Meanwhile, responding to questions from residents, the official threatened to use his Ministry’s resources to clean up empty lots and “surcharge” the costs to the landowners.
Residents complained that in addition to the mosquitoes and other haven for wild animals, the “large forests” are ideal for criminal elements who have been plaguing residents there for some time now.
The official also disclosed that the Ministry may consider buying equipment for this exercise.
“We are going to charge them the cost, the market cost at an even a higher rate for clearing the land.
That is what we are going to do because unless people feel the penalty associated with things, they don’t have any value…and that is a culture we have to change in the country.”
Regarding mixing cement on the roadway, the Minister noted that it is a major concern since not only does it damage the roadway, but vehicles passing are forced to drive on the shoulders further leading to a worse situation.
He urged for neighbours to be concerned and to speak out, even taking the opportunity to monitor works and beautifying the community.

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