Patentia $265M pump commissioned

The pump station

Another one of the Surendra Engineering pumps was commissioned yesterday at Patentia, West Bank Demerara with a final cost of $265 million.

The pump is one of fourteen supplied by Surendra under a contract from 2011. According to Senior Civil Engineer attached to the Agriculture Ministry, Frederick Flatts, the project was originally budgeted at $237 million. The pump has a capacity of 150 cubic metres per second. In May, President Donald Ramotar commissioned one of the pumps at Rose Hall where the cost was stated as being $37 million for the 120 cubic metres per second capacity pump. The disparity between the two figures was not explained yesterday.

Speaking to the media prior to the commissioning, Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth, said that the