Transformation in action – AG on multi-billion ECD energy corridor, major housing expansion

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandllall, on Sunday noted that several major transformative projects that are currently being undertaken along the East Coast Demerara (ECD) corridor, many of which are not visible or known to the general public.

In a bid to highlight something of these initiatives, Nandlall travelled to the ECD backlands where a massive energy corridor is being built out to replace the aged transmission lines and accommodate increased power that will come from the highly-anticipated Gas-to-Energy project.

“This simple corridor, at the back of what is currently nowhere, is a multi-billion capital investment,” the minister stated.

According to Nandlall, “This is the type of development that you’re not seeing but is taking place. So, when we speak about transformation, while you are seeing some…there are other transformative projects which are ongoing that are not visible to many people because of where they’re being constructed. And this certainly would rank among those transformation projects that people don’t see, and unless we tell that story, you don’t know.”

This energy corridor is part of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc. expansion and development plan, including a US$422 million (approximately G$90 billion) project to expand and upgrade the country’s transmission and distribution network.

These works will see new infrastructure being built out to facilitate the distribution of power from the GtE Project to the national grid. The power from the GtE Project, which is expected to deliver some 300-megawatts (MW) by this year end, will be dispatched to the new Goedverwagting Substation, where it will be added to the national grid and then be further transmitted via the new lines.

Electricity revolution
Team Leader of the Executive Management Committee at GPL, Kesh Nandlall, told this publication last month that the foundation works are ongoing to facilitate the installation of new 69kV and 230kV transmission lines.

“These transmission lines will be moving power from Goedverwagting to Berbice, and they are made up of transmission lines 69kV and 230kV, as well as numerous substations… So, the lines are not up physically as yet but we’ve ordered the materials. They are doing the pile driving, then they’re going to do the pile capping. And then they will put up the monopoles or towers to string the lines to transmit power to Berbice,” the GPL Head had explained to this newspaper.

The US$422 million contract was signed in April 2025 for these works. The project is divided into three lots: Lots One and Three were awarded to PowerChina for a combined total of US$256.7 million, while Lot Two was awarded to Kalpataru for US$156.5 million.

Among these works is the installation of some 155 kilometres of 230kV double-circuit transmission lines, which will interconnect the Goedverwagting Substation to new substations that will be built along the Corentyne in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

Meanwhile, another 167 kilometres of 69kV double-circuit transmission lines will be established to replace existing infrastructure along the railway embankment, linking substations along the East Coast of Demerara all the way to the existing Columbia Substation at Mahaicony. In total, five new substations will be built and several others upgraded as part of the project.

In order to facilitate the installation of these new transmission lines, a new road network is being developed from the Goedverwagting Substation in the backlands along the East Coast corridor heading to Mahaicony in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice). This is new road network in the backlands is specifically for GPL to allow access to the new power poles and lines for maintenance works.
Against this backdrop, Minister Nandlall went onto add, “So, quite apart from the infrastructural transformation that is taking place, the electricity revolution that will result when these transmission lines are laid, and we have new transmission lines, and we have a Gas-to-Shore project that will generate electricity that will bring down your light bill to half of what it is now and will produce cooking gas at an extremely low price. This is what we are speaking about. And I am here to help tell that story.”

Housing developments

Another area of development that the minister highlighted during his visit on Sunday was the housing sector. He pointed to a new housing scheme under construction at Enterprise, ECD – Enterprise Phase Two.
“It’s one of the largest housing schemes under construction in the country. But it is not available for most of the population to see,” AG Nandlall said. “It begins about one and a half miles from the public road and it extends southwards about four miles after that. So, you have four miles by half a mile of what used to be cane fields that is now a massive modern housing scheme under construction.”
Billions of dollars are being expended by the Housing Ministry on critical infrastructural works, including the construction of roads, bridges, culverts, drainage and pipe networks in the new scheme. Already, hundreds of houselots have been allocated in the area and dozens of homes are now under construction.
“But none of this most people know about in Guyana because they never come at the back here… In the backlands, [major transformations like these are] taking place at dozens of locations across this country, where we continue to accelerate our housing drive as a government to ensure that all of our people get housing, proper housing, and get titles for their lands. That’s why when we promise 50,000 housing or house lots, it is not a bluff,” Nandlall stated on Sunday.