CH&PA to reclaim lands issued to delinquent Private developers

Nov 24, 2016 News

Turn-key homes at Perseverance, East Bank Demerara

The overhauling of the infamous Turn-key homes in several areas including Perseverance, East Bank Demerara, will be completed shortly.

This was according to the Chairman of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) Hamilton Green earlier this week.

The Turn-key Housing Project was initiated under the former Administration, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) almost three years ago and was considered the ‘saviour’ to the thousands of persons unable to own a home.

The project was quoted to be “an ambitious one” on which the former administration embarked to provide low income families with 1,000 ‘turn-key’ homes.

The homes are two-bedroom facilities, 20 feet by 30 feet and were built with bathroom and toilet facilities; and a kitchen sink. By early March of this year, more than 30 houses were already occupied.

These occupants were in for a shock of their lives when they discovered several structural defects, from leaking roofs and poor plumbing to structural separation issues. The Turn-key project quickly spiraled into one that was ridden with controversy.

The project was labelled as a giant waste of taxpayers’ monies. The David Granger-led administration – under a new Board, embarked on a mission to correct these issues.

The salt in the wound came when the CH&PA revealed that over $100 million was to be spent by the authority to correct these faults.

“It is unbelievable that those contractors were given their final payments and the houses not properly done,” Green told media operatives at his residence in the Capital this week.

He disclosed that the works should be completed in a month depending on the weather conditions.

Meanwhile, plans are afoot to repossess lands that are not being used by some private developers.

This issue made headlines in several dailies after it was revealed that some private developers received large swaths of land to be converted for housing developments. However, some of these developers are yet to install infrastructural systems which go against the terms of agreement – which they signed on to.

Green said that right now, the CH&PA is looking at ways to establish that these contractors are in violation of the terms of agreement and “perhaps” recover those lands to make them productive.

“We (CH&PA) don’t believe it is right for people to be given large tracks of land at moderate prices and just sit on it for speculated purposes” Green said.

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