A total of 10 international and local contractors have thrown their hats in the ring for the contract to redesign and widen the road from Belfield, East Coast Demerara (ECD) to Rosignol, West Coast Berbice (WCB).
Expressions of Interest were invited by the Public Works Ministry for the contract, which is for a consultant to provide services for “the redesign of an existing road network on the East Coast of Demerara: Belfield to Rosignol.”
The bids were opened at the offices of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), revealing three bids from joint venturers (JV), including a JV between local company NK Enterprise Incorporated and Abdulaziz Alsaqabi. Another JV submitting their bid was local firm E&A Consultancy Incorporated in association with Obaid Engineering Consultancy.
Meanwhile, local company SRK Engineering, in association with Abuljebain Engineering Consultants Office (AECO), also submitted bids. The latter company, which is another Kuwaiti-based firm, has offices in several parts of the world, and has experience in both designing and supervising the construction of projects ranging from airports to roads.
Kuwait-based engineering company AL-ABDULHADI ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY (AEC) was the only solo bid by any of the contractors whose bids were opened. According to the company on its website, its work experience spans transportation, irrigation, energy, water supply, and the agriculture sector.
The Belfield to Rosignol road widening was intended to be a continuation of the East Coast Road Widening and Expansion Project, which was commissioned in 2020. The US$50.2 million project was supposed to have two components: a four-lane expansion from Better Hope to Annandale, and an upgrade to the existing two-lane road from Annandale to Belfield.
Back in 2019, a grant of Kuwaiti Dinars (KD) 500,000 was approved from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to conduct a technical and economic feasibility study for this very project – the redesign of the Belfield to Rosignol road network.
In 2016, the Government of Guyana and the People’s Republic of China had, through the China Export-Import Bank, signed a $9.6 billion (US$45.5 million) concessional loan for completion of the widening of the road between Better Hope and Belfield. The Government had contributed approximately $3 billion towards the project.
Last year, it was announced that the Government had gotten approval from its counterparts in China to utilise the sums saved on the ECD road widening and improvement contract (when the road was commissioned, the cost at the time was US$43 million) to execute 24 additional connector roads linked to the project.
The ECD connector roads tie into the Government’s infrastructural development agenda that is linked to other transformational projects. These roads would provide easier access and reduce traffic congestion when the Ogle-Eccles thoroughfare comes on stream. That four-lane highway would connect the ECD and East Bank Demerara corridors.
Last Thursday, Government commissioned the much-anticipated Mandela-to-Eccles four-lane Highway. The $2.6 billion four-lane road runs from Mandela Avenue all the way to Eccles, EBD, and works are currently ongoing on a second phase to further extend the road to Great Diamond, EBD.
Construction was executed by eight contractors, and work was completed in less than one year. The road features an asphaltic and concrete round-about with reinforced concrete sidewalks. The four-lane roadway runs for 2.8 kilometres, and includes parking lanes, 12 bridges, stones on the median, and 214 solar-powered lamps, among other amenities.
