East Coast four-lane expansion… Sacked truckers told to return to work

Sep 27, 2018 News

China Rail assure traffic, environmental issues being addressed

China Rail says it has taken a number of steps to ease the traffic situation on the East Coast of Demerara

As the spotlight continues to hover over the performances of Chinese financing and contractors in Guyana, the contractor for the East Coast Demerara four-lane expansion project yesterday denied that the firm ordered the sacking of a number of truckers.

The truckers were sub-contracted to fetch loam, stone and sand for the 17 kilometers of work, US$45.5M project.

However, they claimed Tuesday that they were not paid for over two months.

Almost 100 truck drivers and labourers were not paid, it was reported Tuesday. A number of the sub-contracted workers had walked off.

Many of the truckers were still paying off installments on their vehicles, and had not paid their workers.

Hours after speaking to reporters, a number of truckers said they were told that they could not fetch materials for the project anymore.

Yesterday, officials of China Railway First Group Limited, the contractor, denied that they had given orders to contractors to halt their businesses with truckers who complained.

The officials visited the offices of Kaieteur News where they said they have little interaction with sub-contractors.

“We have several contractors and they in turn hire people to work for them. We pay the contractors who in turn pay them,” an official said.

They said some monies were recently released to one contractor who had hired a few of the truckers who complained.

China Railway later said yesterday that they spoke to one of the contractors and the truckers will be resuming work. It was not explained why the truckers had been sacked.

The China Rail officials, who asked not to be named as the Ministry of the Public Infrastructure is officially handling the public relation side of things, said that they will not tolerate such discrimination and welcome suggestions how they could improve things.

In recent weeks, the management of the project came under fire with commuters complaining bitterly of the poor traffic management.

Residents complained of dust pollution.

An environmentalist, in a stinging letter to the editor, criticized the seeming lax supervision to ensure that China Rail adhere to stringent environment obligations, including traffic management, that their contract would have mandated them.

Yesterday, the officials said that they have taken note of the social media complaints and reports in Kaieteur News.

“We have hired more persons to help with the traffic situation and another truck has been added to wet the roadway to reduce the dust. We understand that there will be inconvenience and we assure that we are listening,” a Chinese official explained.

China Rail is placing more signs on the roadway also.

The Chinese-funded project is expected to be completed next year.

The officials admitted yesterday that they encountered problems with sections of the old roadway which had to be dug out completely so that the foundation of the new sections would not be compromised.

This and the conditions of side streets to divert traffic have all contributed to some issues.

“We are working to correct these now,” the Chinese official assured.