Amaila Falls Road… US$38.4M in contracts to date

… pontoon crossing still to be awarded  

Some workers on the Amaila Falls Access Road this past weekend

Ever since the fiasco involving Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc, for the construction of the Amaila Falls Access Road, government has allocated in excess of US$23M in contracts to more than 10 different companies, along with the Forces Account Department of the Ministry of Public Works, in efforts to complete the project.
This figure excludes amounts that would have already been paid to Motilall and also does not include the pontoon crossing over the Essequibo River.
The Public Works Ministry will, by the end of this month, move to invite bidders for that aspect of the project.
Motilall was paid just about US$12M for his role in the road project. Essentially, government would have to date given out more than US$38.4M (approx. G$7.7B) in contracts to build the Amaila Falls Access Road. Synergy Holdings Inc’s original contract was worth US$15.4M for the entire stretch of road and crossings.
The road project is being undertaken in a number of segments, with the Ministry of Public Works assuming responsibility for ‘section two.’ That section runs along the Mabura Road to the Essequibo River and has a contract price of $336,094,861. This publication has been informed that some $63.2M of that money has already been disbursed, with a completion date set in December.
Section three was allocated to Toolsie Persaud Quarries Inc. for $373.3M. That section of the Amaila Falls road stretches from Butukari to the Kaburi Village bypass. Of that amount, some $205M has already been disbursed. It is 61 per cent finished and is scheduled to be completed by the end of September this year.
The same company has also been awarded a contract for section four of the road for $246M.
Section four runs between from the Kaburi/Omai junction to the Issano bypass and already more than $140M of that contract sum has been paid out. That section is reportedly 84 per cent finished and is scheduled to be completed by August 31 this year.
Ivor Allen was awarded the $182.3M contract for section five of the road that runs the Issano junction to Craig Road. Of that contract sum, $137.5M has already been disbursed and while it had been scheduled to be completed in July this has had to be revised. That section of the road is 85 per cent completed and is now scheduled to be finished by the end of August.
Section six of the road was awarded to G Bovell Construction Services for $281.7M, but had to be terminated. It was subsequently granted in two lots, with the first from Issano Junction to Sorrow Hill being allocated to Ivor Allen for $145M of which some $65M has already been paid over. That section of the road, according to reports, is 40 per cent finished with a scheduled completion date at the end of September.
The second lot of section six was awarded to Dwarka Nauth for $45M.
Hassan N Pasha General Building and Civil Contractor was handed the last and reportedly most difficult section of the road, ‘section seven’ with a contract price of $838M.
That contract was terminated in April last after only 15 per cent of the work was completed.
Pasha received almost $315M.
That contract was subsequently handed to China Railway First Group (Guyana) Inc for $1.7B (US$8.5M). The Chinese company is currently mobilizing its equipment which landed in Guyana over the weekend and has until year end to complete the contract.
Additionally, Dynamic Engineering received the contract for the design and construction of the Kuribrong River Bridge. The contract price for the design of the bridge is $34.9M while the contract price to build the bridge is $358.2M.
The design for the bridge has been completed and has been presented to the Ministry of Public Works for review. Construction is scheduled to begin next month.
This publication was informed that the pontoons for the Essequibo crossing are currently being stored at Butakari. A tender for the assembly of the pontoons, wheel house and propulsion unit for the Essequibo crossing is reportedly under preparation and this publication understands that the government intends to go out for bids for these works by the end of this month.