Traffic congestion in Georgetown is expected to be considerably reduced with the completion of an East Bank/East Coast road linkage project. The Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) today announced that the Government of Guyana through a loan provided by the Government of India has entered into an agreement for the road project which will link Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and Ogle, East Coast Demerara.
The new road will serve to reduce the congestion by providing commuters with an alternative route, thereby improving the safety and comfort of commuters, MPI has revealed. Additionally, the new local distributor road will also allow commuters to navigate around the outer limits and thereby reduce traffic congestion in the capital city.
In summary, the travel time between East Bank and Georgetown will be reduced, thereby creating significant savings for commuters. By taking off some traffic from the East Bank Highway and Georgetown, it would also reduce the deterioration and erosion of these roadways, according to information released by the Ministry.
The new road will also integrate other local distributor roads on the East Bank Demerara with the road network of Georgetown and the East Coast Demerara corridor while simultaneously improving the connectivity with the Ogle Airport. This is consistent with the Transportation Policy Proposal of the Greater Georgetown Development Plan (2001-2013) aiming to link the road networks on the East Coast Demerara, the East Bank Demerara and the capital city.
Currently, the East Bank Highway is the only exit route available to residents who occupy Georgetown, East Coast Demerara and East Bank Demerara. Since these areas are below sea level and prone to flooding, it is important that an alternative route be created in the case of any major natural disaster.
The project has three distinctive stages: Stage 1 – Detailed Project Report Preparation; Stage 2 – Construction Supervision and Stage 3 – Post Construction/ Defects Liability Period. Stage 1 has been awarded to RITES Limited (the Consultant) – a Government of India Enterprise for the sum of US$1,321,000. The Final Detailed Project Report is expected to be submitted in April, 2019 with Stage 2 beginning approximately in July, 2019.
The Design will allow for a new alignment (approximately 15 km long) which will connect the East Coast of Demerara to the East Bank of Demerara at the aforementioned limits. It will also allow for the integration with the existing road network via a number of Connector roads (total length of 9.62 km) at Aubrey Barker Road, Haags Bosch Road, Mocha Arcadia Road and Diamond Access Road. Based on the agreement, the terms of reference stipulate that the Consultants have to submit an Inception Report, Feasibility Report, Draft Detailed Project
Report, Final Detailed Project Report and Bid Documents.
Commencement of Stage 1 began on April 13, 2018 and to date the Consultant has submitted the Inception Report on May 15, 2018 and the Feasibility Report on September 21, 2018. Based on submissions thus far the approximate budget is US$ 104,000,000.
