US$20M East Bank four lane road… Public works ministry mismanaged project, caused delays- BK Int’l

The quarrel over the removal of utility lines to facilitate extension of the four-lane extension on the East Bank of Demerara, has taken a turn for the worse with the contractor of a critical section yesterday accusing Government of mismanaging the project.

Brian Tiwarie, Managing Director of BK Int’l

As a matter of fact, the delays could see completion going beyond next year.
According to BK International’s Managing Director, Brian Tiwarie, “the problem with this East Bank Expansion Project is that the Ministry of Public Works is not doing a good job of management and supervision and as a result the work is constantly being extended by delay after delay.”
Tiwarie went further: “…at this rate, the project may extend to 2015 or beyond. As a company, we continue to lose money on equipment and labour stationed on the East Bank every time there is a delay.”
The problems started Tuesday after BK was reportedly working around the DDL turn in Diamond. An old pole of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) fell, damaging underground cables of the company, and disrupting services to several areas, including commercial banks, the hospital and an insurance company in Diamond.
GT&T, in a statement criticizing BK, said that the US$20M extension project from Providence to Diamond has seen almost a dozen disruptions in Diamond since works started almost three years ago. GT&T had accused BK of misrepresenting the facts and being unethical.
The Ministry of Public Works said that BK had not been given permission to work in the area where the pole was.
GT&T had rushed to the site on Tuesday, planting a new pole in the middle of what BK said would be the new carriageway.
The planting of that pole effectively stopped the contractor from doing its works, the contractor said.
BK, in its statement challenged the Ministry of Public Works to support its charge that the GT&T cable damaged recently was in an area not assigned to BK by the consultants.
BK also refuted GT&T’s statement that the pole was outside of the area that it was agreed to carry out contract works in at that time.
“While BK is not always privy to the arrangements between MPW and GT&T, BK is satisfied that the area where the pole fell and cable was damaged on Tuesday 16, September, was within an area cleared for construction works.”
The contractor said that it has records of a meeting on August 27 at the Ministry’s boardroom which shows clearly it was not working in an unauthorized area.

A quarrel over this GT&T pole at the DDL turn in Diamond has the contractor, BK International, accusing Government of mismanaging that US$20M four-lane extension project.

“With this information established, BK international also calls on GT&T to withdraw its charge that BK is being “unethical” and “deliberately misrepresenting the facts. The facts are as stated above and the media can ask the Ministry of Public Works for a copy of the Minutes of the August 2014 Progress Meeting which substantiate the statements contained here,” Tiwarie said.
The issue over the moving of utility lines has been a raging one for over a year now despite the many consultations that were held before the start of the project which has been delayed for months.
In the meantime, commuters are daily facing congestion on the busiest roadway in the country. The roads are also in bad shape, leading to more frustration from the public.
The US$20M project, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), itself has been marred with days of congestion and delays, especially with the removal of utility lines that had been in the way. The contractors and the utility companies had initially been unable to decide on sharing the costs.
The project kicked off in early 2012 and was expected to end last year. However, it is unlikely that even this year-end’s deadline can be met as the Diamond Bridge in the DDL area is still to be completed, engineers say.
The roadway itself not only links West Demerara via the Demerara Harbour Bridge but leads to the Timehri airport and Linden, a main gateway to the hinterlands.