City traffic to flow through Bel-Air and Prashad Nagar
The upscale residential communities of Bel-Air and Prashad Nagar will soon see changes in the infrastructure layout as the government moves ahead with its planned road expansion and construction to link the East Coast Demerara Highway with Dennis Street. The road will pass through the two villages. There will also be upgrading to all the cross and interlinking streets within the communities that will lead into the new road network.
On Monday a consultation was held in the community where residents turned out to have discussions with engineers and politicians in relation to the planned roadworks which will commence soon as contracts have already been awarded.
Guyanese construction company S. Jagmohan Construction and Trinidadian company Kall Co Limited were awarded the contracts. One is the widening of the existing Delhi Street into a two-lane road which would be done by S Jagmohan Construction, and which will cater for southbound traffic while Kall Co Limited will be responsible for the construction of a new two-lane road that will cater for northbound traffic. A Boulevard will also be constructed between the two carriageways to cater to pedestrians.
At yesterday’s consultations, residents while welcoming the development, raised several concerns including the drainage, noise and dust pollution, the passage of heavy-duty trucks through their accustomed quiet neighborhood, vending along the roadways, safety for the community’s children and pedestrians, and access into and out of existing connecting streets which would now have to feed into the two major carriageways.
Residents in the Campbellville area which will also be impacted by the construction of the roads raised concerns about existing flooding situations they experience and expressed worry that with the roads now being built, this will increase the flowing in that area.
Among those present at the consultation were former Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkharran and Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram. Ram told the gathering that he was retained as an attorney to look into the interest of the community in relation to the construction works. He put forward several questions which spoke to the issue of Article 13, and if feasibility, environmental, and impact assessment studies were done before a decision was made to have the roads and increased traffic pass through the community.
Monday’s consultation was attended by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Senior Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, Ministers of Public Works Deodat Indar and Juan Edghill, and technical staff of the Ministry of Public Works as well as the contractors who will be working on the project.
