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Electricity for Angoy’s Avenue by year end- Hinds
– lights along Number 19 Highway on the cards
By Leon Suseran
Residents of Angoy’s Avenue may get a special Christmas present this year; electricity from the national power grid for the very first time.
This is according to Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, who told Kaieteur News that the government has been desirous of providing electricity to the heavily populated squatter settlement ever since the party assumed office in 1992, under the Unserved Areas Electrification Programme (UAEP).
Some 40,000 homes benefitted from that project, but the Prime Minister noted that the government was constrained to omit Angoy’s Avenue due to the fact that the New Haven Co-Op Society had filed an injunction to prevent Government from laying the groundwork for the provision of electricity in the area.
PM Hinds in Berbice recently
This led to many residents securing illegal electricity connections in the Angoy’s Avenue area. There have been numerous pleas for the Co-op and Guyana Power & Light Inc (GPL) to allow the government to enter the area.
That squabble went on for the past 20 years after which the injunction was finally dropped some time last year.
“We were prevented by court order not to proceed there, but eventually the Co-op people eventually made good in allowing development to take place…so now we are committed to go ahead and extend electricity there,” Hinds said.
The Prime Minister added that poles and network hardware should be up before the end of the year, paving the way for the provision of regularised electricity.
The official noted that the power company is also looking to electrify some other areas around the country, including Ruby Backdam in Essequibo and Kuru Kuru. The Ministry of Housing, he added, had contracted GPL to work in other areas including Second Phase of Fort Ordnance Housing Scheme in East Canje and Numbers 76/77 Housing Scheme in Corriverton.
But GPL was constrained largely by a shortage of poles, he added.
But now the local production of Wallaba poles has increased, thus, the government is able to provide these vital materials in its bid to expand in the electricity sector.
Number 19 Highway
Prime Minister Hinds also said that lighting of the Number 19 Highway “is on the cards.”
Commuters have repeatedly complained about the long, unlit roadway, where many fatal accidents have occurred over the years.
“As we have been improving the main roads, a study came up with traffic accidents and from that study, it was proposed that we should start lighting in some restricted areas, where lack of lighting was contributing to high accident rates,” he noted.
“We will get to 19, sometime— I can’t say when exactly, but it’s on the cards.”
He noted that Berbice is “strongly” connected with the Demerara system and power is being shared from both areas, an advantage towards reliable electricity supply.
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