Hope Canal 75 percent complete, $2B spent

Sep 22, 2012 News

The Hope Canal, a project that has been identified as one of the largest infrastructure initiatives in the history of Guyana, is now 75 percent complete, with a whopping $2B already spent.
This is according to Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who explained that all the major aspects of the project, including the 300-foot long bridge, will be finished by June of 2013.

A section of the Hope Canal which is close to completion

Dr Ramsammy also posited that the $3B Hope/Dochfour Northern Relief Channel project is on schedule.
This venture was initiated by the former Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud who had projected an 18-month completion period when construction commenced in February 2011.
The project has four major components. The first is the actual excavation of the 10.3km long earthen channel from the East Demerara Water Conservancy to the coastal spill off at the other end of the Canal.
The other three parts of the project are the civil works – a three-gated conservancy head regulator, a bridge across the East Coast Public Road, and the eight-gated high level outfall at the Atlantic end of the Canal.
The Ministry of Agriculture through its National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has undertaken the excavation aspect of the project, leaving the civil works to the three awarded contractors, BK International, DIPCON Engineering, and Courtney Benn Contracting Services.
The channel is being constructed to ease the pressure of water on the Conservancy