16 communities to benefit from electricity supply for the first time -CHPA

The total cost for the project stands at $471 million and the communities that will benefit include Onderneeming, Zeelugt, Farm, Covent Garden, Diamond, Eccles, Perseverance, Barnwell, Paradise, Enmore, Hope, Experiment, Baltyock, Kilcoy Chesney, and Bartica.

16 communities to benefit from electricity supply for the first time  -CHPA

A total of 16 communities across Guyana will receive electricity for the time before the end of this year. That announcement was made today by Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority, Lelon Saul.

Mr. Saul told a media conference this morning that the infrastructural upgrade that the communities have been waiting on for more than three years will see a total of 38,000 families celebrating Christmas 2017 with electricity in their homes.

“It is not our desire that people should live in darkness, this is not the dark age,” the CH&PA CEO said.

The Authority is currently in the process of procuring the electrical line hardware material, transformers, conductors and wallaba poles.

These materials are being provided by foreign companies in China, Columbia, and Trinidad and should be in Guyana between September and October.

The CEO is confident that the installation process will be completed by the first week in December. Local companies have been contracted to provide the wallaba poles.

The total cost for the project stands at $471 million and the communities that will benefit include Onderneeming, Zeelugt, Farm, Covent Garden, Diamond, Eccles, Perseverance, Barnwell, Paradise, Enmore, Hope, Experiment, Baltyock, Kilcoy Chesney, and Bartica.

“We [CH&PA] are responsible for the infrastructure and we do the electrical network thereafter we would hand over the electrical network to GPL. The design is in keeping with the standards of GPL,” he explained.

In terms of procuring electrical contractors for the installation, Saul said based on an agreement between the CH&PA and the Guyana Power and Light, only pre qualified electrical contractors provided by GPL can be used.

“As such GPL has provided the 2017 pre qualified [list of] electrical contractors and a correspondence will be provided in the new week requesting the endorsement for the National Procurement and Tender Board to proceed.”

The CEO said the Authority remains concerned with vandalism and abuse of the infrastructure and is recruiting Rangers to assist in this regard, as the cost of repairs and replacement remains high.

Saul spoke briefly on the installation of street lights and explained that while CH&PA continues to install street lights in some areas, it remains the responsibility of the local democratic organs to ensure they are maintained and payments are made to GPL.

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