$764M to rehabilitate roads in Mabaruma, Port Kaituma

Apr 16, 2017 News

After years of numerous protest actions, promises and media reports, residents of Port Kaituma and Mabaruma can now breathe a sigh of relief.

The condition of the port Kaituma Airstrip road when it rains. (File Photo)

Contracts have been awarded to rehabilitate several of the deteriorating roads in these Region One (Barima/Waini) sub-regions.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon, at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing last Thursday, noted that these roads will be all-weather and will be the first of their kind in these communities.
Contracts in the sum of $764M have already been awarded to effect the works.
The Minister also noted the urgency to get the works done since there were several complaints made by residents during Ministerial outreaches in the past.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI), Annette Ferguson, had visited Port Kaituma last year and had a first-hand experience of the deplorable roads and poor infrastructure which prompted her to acknowledge that the community suffered from years of neglect.
Harmon said yesterday that contract in the sum of $51M was awarded to Construction firm, S. Lorrick Contractors, to rehabilitate the road from Central Kaituma Wharf Road to the Old Road Junction, Port Kaituma.

State Minister, Joseph Harmon

Further, for the rehabilitation of roads from Port Kaituma to Matthews Ridge Phase Two, a contract in the sum of $334.2M was awarded to International Imports and Supplies. The firm was also awarded the $16.8M contract to rehabilitate the Central Kaituma Catwalk Road to Oronoque, Port Kaituma.
Likewise, the Port Kaituma road from the airstrip to the Fitzburg Housing Scheme which has been causing headaches for a number of years will also be rehabilitated. The contract in the sum of $213.2M was awarded to KP Thomas and Sons Contracting Incorporated.
In Mabaruma, the Kumaka junction to the waterfront by the market road area will also be rehabilitated. The contract in the sum of $66.2M was awarded to Mohamed Ramzan Ally Khan Construction while the Mabaruma main township road to the airstrip road, will be rehabilitated at a cost of $82.1M.
Minister Harmon noted that the Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, has undertaken to visit and witness the works to be undertaken.
“We expect that once infrastructure is put into a community, the community should help protect it because they are the ones who are inconvenienced when they are damaged or improperly used,” Harmon said.
Funding for these works is catered for in the 2017 budget under hinterland expenditure. A total of $2.302B was allocated for the continuation of road rehabilitation and construction in the hinterland.

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