Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 26, 2014 News
The Amaila Falls Access Road is almost complete according to Head of State, President Donald Ramotar.
Addressing media operatives at Office of the President, President Ramotar told reporters that based on his most recent report, the contractors were less than two miles from the Amaila Falls site.
The road has been plagued with troubles ever since the contract was handed to Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc, for the construction of the Amaila Falls Access Road for US$15.4M
Government eventually took that contract from him and subsequently allocated in excess of US$23M in contracts to more than 10 different companies, along with the Forces Account Department of the Ministry of Public Works, in efforts to complete the project.
Motilall was paid just about US$12M for his role in the road project. Overall, government would have paid out more than US$38.4M (approx. G$7.7B) in contracts to build the Amaila Falls Access Road. Synergy Holdings Inc’s original contract was worth US$15.4M for the entire stretch of road and crossings.
The road project is being undertaken in a number of segments, with the Ministry of Public Works assuming responsibility for ‘section two.’ That section runs along the Mabura Road to the Essequibo River and has a contract price of $336,094,861.
Section three was allocated to Toolsie Persaud Quarries Inc. for $373.3M. That section of the Amaila Falls road stretches from Butukari to the Kaburi Village bypass.
The same company has also been awarded a contract for ‘section four’ of the road for $246M.
That section runs between from the Kaburi/Omai junction to the Issano bypass
Ivor Allen was awarded the $182.3M contract for ‘section five’ of the road that runs the Issano Junction to Craig Road.
‘Section six’ of the road was awarded to G. Bovell Construction Services for $281.7M, but had to be terminated.
It was subsequently granted in two lots, with the first from Issano Junction to Sorrow Hill being allocated to Ivor Allen for $145M.
The second lot of section six was awarded to Dwarka Nauth for $45M.
Hassan N Pasha General Building and Civil Contractor was handed the last and reportedly most difficult section of the road, ‘section seven’ with a contract price of $838M.
That contract was terminated last April after only 15 per cent of the work was completed.
Pasha received almost $315M.
That contract was subsequently handed to China Railway First Group (Guyana) Inc for $1.7B (US$8.5M). Additionally, Dynamic Engineering received the contract for the design and construction of the Kuribrong River Bridge.
The contract price for the design of the bridge is $34.9M, while the contract price to build the bridge is $358.2M.
Ramotar during his press briefing also lamented the pull-out by Sithe Global to build the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric plant, as one of the biggest challenges in the past year.
According to the President, the investment would have been some 25 per cent of the total cost and even at the early stages would have spawned significant amount of economic activity.
The President noted that last year was a good one economically in that it experienced a five per cent growth in the economy.
He said it could have been a lot better had the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric project gone through.
“It could have been a lot better but we faced a lot of challenges,” said Ramotar.
He suggested that in going forward this year he is optimistic that the growth will continue and that the country continues to attract important investments.
See pix as road
Caption: A section of the Amaila Falls Access road at one of the many crossings
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