Linden/Ituni/Kwakwani road repairs to fuel development

Apr 30, 2016 News

Upgrades to the Linden-Ituni-Kwakwani road are part of a plan to stimulate development in Region Ten.
The development of the road networks is vital to the creation of jobs, and the possibility of improving commercial activities, according to Regional Chairman, Renis Morian. This is why the region has included it into its five-year “action plan”, he added.
“We are thinking about the linkage between Linden and Kwakwani, because the movement of goods and services is too costly on that stretch of road,” Morian said.
He observed that the planned upgrade will reduce transportation costs while stimulating trade and other economic opportunities, which will significantly enhance the lives of citizens, particularly traders using the route. “…it will bring down cost, it will open up more lands for business…Businesses are going out of Georgetown, which is cramped, so if you could do Linden-Ituni-Kwakwani road, the Linden to Lethem road, all the corridors along the road, people would want to go there and do different things, manufacturing etc,” he said.
Morian said that minibus drivers plying the route from Linden to Ituni to Kwakwani have long complained about the worsening state of the roads.
“Drivers are complaining about spending more money to repair (their vehicles). You do not even have jobs (in the region) but you have a case of the drivers spending more money to repair their cars, service their cars,” he said.
“We are doing a lot of work on the ground, but the populace is looking for money to earn so we are caught between a terrible situation where; yes we have to get jobs for the people, but before we can get jobs for the people, we have to get the kind of infrastructure to attract investment,” he added.
Additionally, to improve public infrastructure in the region, Morian said that part of the plan of action for the region is to bring electricity to Bamia. He said that the regional administration is also working with an investor to power Moblissa.
The Administration is also working to have a new Regional Democratic Council (RDC) building. Morian explained that this is to ensure that the councillors perform and deliver services to the region as expected.
“We feel that we have outlived this building because the RDC really should be the agency that is looking over the development in Region Ten, which means that we would have to take on more technical staff, more qualified people, so we are looking for a site for a new building,” he said.
“The focus is to ensure that the RDC does the function that it was built to do,” he added. “The RDC was supposed to be the hub of employment and development, but somehow it lost that mandate. President David Granger is taking it back along that line,” he said.
The Regional Chairman explained that funding for the necessary studies, drawings and soil testing for this new RDC building is provided under the Region’s 2016 Budget.
The new plan of action for Region Ten’s development is a clearly articulated and dynamic framework designed to best position the region to 2020 and beyond. The plan articulates improving transportation infrastructure and making the region a productive landscape.