Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Over $944M spent on La Parfaite Harmonie roads, still in a deplorable state
Former President, Donald Ramotar, assisting the granddaughter of businessman, Bhagwandin Madoo, to cut the ribbon to officially open the La Parfaite Harmonie Access Road in 2014.
Kaieteur News – Reports have shown that for the past seven years, over $944M was spent on the roads in La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, but the roads are still in a deplorable state.
Cenes from La Parfaite Harmonie Access Road, yesterday.
In Kaieteur News’ July 22, 2021 edition, a letter titled, “Constant repairs to La Parfaite Harmonie Road are a flagrant misuse of taxpayer dollars,” was published. The writer, Edson Grenville, highlighted in his letter that the residents of La Parfaite Harmonie continues to feel aggrieved by the condition of the main access road, especially after years of constant patchwork and repairs.
According to reports, in September 2014, the then Government commissioned a $604M Access Road for La Parfaite Harmonie. The contractors for the 3.5-kilometre road were BK International and Gaico Construction.
Reports revealed that since the commissioning of the $604M Access Road, the road rapidly deteriorated as a result of the high volume of heavy-duty vehicles that traverse the road carting building materials, among other things, as the housing scheme developed.
In addition, $344M was also spent on other roads in the area. And monies were also spent on rehabilitation works to those roads over the years.
According to an April 2021, Department of Public Information (DPI) article, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, had disclosed that $890M will be spent for road upgrades and other infrastructure at La Parfaite Harmonie.
The report stated that Minister Croal is injecting some $890M into the community to upgrade 8.8 kilometres of roads and other infrastructure there.
It was reported that the upgrades to the road would include construction of pavements, sidewalks and drain networks. Several streetlights would also be installed and a multipurpose recreational facility constructed. The works should commence by this month, Croal had stated.
Additionally, Kaieteur News yesterday made contact with Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, who explained that since taking office his Ministry has received numerous complaints concerning the deplorable state of the La Parfaite Harmonie roads.
According to the Minister, more works are expected to be done on the roads. However, he noted that instead of patchwork, sectional repairs will be done on the road. He added that after the sub-base of the road is removed the repair work will commence.
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