President Dr Irfaan Ali has often emphasised the need for local companies to partner with international companies doing business in Guyana and true to form, four local companies have partnered with Kuwaiti companies vying to redesign the Belfield to Rosignol road.
Bids for a consultant to redesign the existing road network from Belfield to Rosignol on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), were opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) last week.
It was revealed that NK Enterprise Incorporated, a local company, had partnered with Kuwaiti company Abdul Consultancy Engineering Incorporated to bid for the project. Also, bidding is local company SRK Engineering, in association with another Kuwaiti company Abuljebain Engineering Consulting Office (AECO).
Meanwhile, local company E&A Consultants Incorporated has partnered with Al-Obaid Engineering Consultants. And CB & Associates are in a joint venture with Al-Habshi Engineering Consultants, in association with Beston Consulting.
The Belfield to Rosignol road widening, which will encompass over 25 villages, was intended to be a continuation of the US$43 million East Coast Road Widening and Expansion Project, which was commissioned in 2020 after years of work and changed contractors. The 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. Among the issues addressed in the study is the degradation of the road, drainage and road safety.
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.
In 2021, it was announced that the Government had gotten approval from its counterparts in China to utilize 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.
In April of last year, 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.
