Massive road programme for the public sector in 2023 will require a whopping six million tonnes of aggregate and while this is viewed as a positive sign, the Guyana Government is now faced with the challenge of meeting these demands.
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo addressed a gathering at the launch of the part-time jobs in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) on Friday, where he shared that apart from the public sector’s demand, the private sector will also require significant aggregate resources.
At the national level, the country can produce about 600,000 tonnes, representing just 10% of the demand. For this, he shared that government is exploring various options to keep the construction sector going. Neighbouring countries such as Suriname and Trinidad are also unable to fulfil these needs.
“We need next year, about six million tonnes of crusher-run and stones for the road programmes. That’s the public sector alone, leaving out the private sector, all the buildings and construction. With the new quarries coming on stream, we’ll probably be able to produce 10 percent of that, about 600,000 tonnes. We need 10 times more quarry products that we can produce…We may have to explore bringing in stone from Canada or some other part of the world if we want to keep the building programme going for the government sector,” Jagdeo shared.
In 2023, the Ali-led administration will be focusing heavily on community infrastructure, having mobilized major projects within the last two years. As such, the Vice President pointed to the immediate need for labour and material in adequate proportions.
“Now, we’re going back to the roads in the villages and towards the city to start fixing those up but we need aggregates. You can have a big programme but you don’t have material and labour to implement the programme. And that has become a challenge here.”
