Moving ahead on its promise of providing 50,000 house lots for citizens during its current five-year term, Government today, under the auspices of the Ministry of Housing and Water signed close to 200 contracts. These projects are for infrastructural works and construction of houses in various areas across the country including Cummings Lodge, Prospect, and Great Diamond.
Speaking at the ceremony held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues said the housing areas being developed would allow for over 10,000 house lots. She also noted that the process was historic as it was the first time that many contracts were signed at any one time by a single Ministry.
According to Minister Rodrigues, this signaled the importance the Government was placing on the sector.
Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal, while also citing the integral role his Ministry would play in ensuring that Government’s housing promise was fulfilled, pointed out that the number of contractors carrying out works would also include 26 new ones in the system. He pointed out that it was expected that works totaling $4B would be carried out by June 2021 while another $6B is expected to be completed in the last half of this year.
‘Some may say we are a country of vast land areas and this is so, but we must consider as well-the cost to develop those areas into housing schemes,” Minister Croal said, while adding that ‘we walk the walk’.
Meanwhile, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh charged the contractors to ensure that good quality work is carried out in the housing areas and reminded them that the quality of work that they put out will determine whether each can graduate to being a higher level construction firm.
“I urge you to be diligent in implementing this work. We must not have to chase contractors down to complete work. It is also your responsibility to ensure that contracts are in line with specifications,’’ the Senior Finance Minister charged.
Minister Singh then urged the contractors to ensure that works begin immediately following the contract-signing and upon the receipt of their contract advance financing since he alluded to President Irfaan Ali’s as well as the entire Government’s hope that there would be ‘immediate mobilization and actual work commencing on the ground’.
“President Ali would like to see development happening today as what we aim for is not some abstract concept ….visible evidence of work happening on the ground,” Minister Singh said. He added that construction works would result in the creation of additional beautiful housing areas for waiting families to reside in and which would add to those already created under the stewardship of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government in the past such as the Diamond/Grove, Eccles, Parfaite Harmonie and Tuschen Housing Schemes.
The Senior Finance Minister concluded that the commencement of the works by contractors will also serve to be a boost to the economy as it will allow for the creation of jobs for large numbers of Guyanese such as construction workers. He also alluded to the continuing efforts by Government to facilitate access to financing for persons wishing to apply for loans from financial institutions through the recent increase in loan ceilings.
