The proposed road to link Ogle, East Coast Demerara to Diamond, East Bank Demerara, will need roughly 3.5 times more money than the initial US$50 million that was secured, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan has said.
This would be about US$175 million, an increase from last November, when Jordan had indicated a price tag of US$120 million.
Nonetheless, the project will begin with the funds available, he said. Jordan was questioned by on the current status of the project last Wednesday after he presented the country’s mid-year economic report.
“The Ogle to Diamond road, I think Minister [of Public Infrastructure David] Patterson had already indicated that he would like to see Phase One of the road started by the third or fourth quarter of this year. But thereafter, as you know, the loan was US$50 million and the loan cannot do much. We need roughly 3.5 times that US$50 million to get a good and proper road from Diamond to Ogle that we are talking about,” the minister said.
He added that they will start constructing the road but are currently negotiating either getting additional funding or using money from budgetary allocations but no decision has yet been made.
“It takes a while and because of the interim status [of the government] we don’t want to decide if it is us. We said we were not going to undertake actions that would deem to be not keeping with that status…The US$50 million will go somewhere during this period to start it and by the time elections come and are over and we are the winners, we can run it,” Jordan added.
Ministry of Public Infra-structure (MoPI) Technical Services Manager Nigel Erskine had previously told this newspaper that works on the Ogle to Diamond bypass road are expected to begin in the final quarter of this year as the preliminary report, which suggests that a four-lane highway is most feasible, was handed over in October by Indian company, RITES Limited.
The report has estimated that the project will cost approximately US$104 million, though Erskine said the actual cost could be above or below that sum, once the project is finalised and they receive the draft design.
However, Jordan, during his 2019 budget presentation last November, had pegged the cost of the project at US$120 million.
To start preparatory works, which will include draining, re-engineering and retrofitting the swampy area between Ogle and Diamond to facilitate the main construction works which are targeted for later in 2019, he had said, $45 million has been allocated.
Subsequently, in March, Jordan had indicated that the Ogle-Diamond road would be extended to Timehri. He was at the time delivering the feature address at the commissioning of a new Distribution Services Limited warehouse at Diamond. He had said that a bilateral donor had already been approached for financing to continue the study. He subsequently told Stabroek News that government would either get financing from the same donor or will have to use resources garnered from the petroleum industry. India is the bilateral partner and provided the initial funds.
The new road link will serve as a corridor for communities on the East Bank, including Perseverance, Mocha, Providence, Eccles, and Peter’s Hall. It will also provide a bypass from the city, where most traffic flows daily, resulting in massive congestion and major delays.
