AG Nandlall highlights ‘transformative’ projects in ECD backlands

Two large-scale development projects are taking shape deep in the backlands of the East Coast Demerara (ECD), which Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, described as transformative undertakings that most Guyanese have never seen.

Speaking in a video recorded approximately six miles south of the East Coast Public Road behind Enterprise Village on Sunday, Minister Nandlall stood on a newly constructed all-weather road cutting through what were once sugar cane fields.

The road, he explained, forms part of a nearly 200-mile utility corridor being built by the government to house the country’s transmission cables and communication lines.

“This corridor starts at Wales on the West Bank of the Demerara River,” he explained. “It crosses the Demerara River at Garden of Eden, then it continues east along the backlands of Garden of Eden, then it turns north along the backlands of the East Bank of the Demerara, and it ends at Goedverwagting on the East Coast of the Demerara.”

From there, he said, the corridor will extend past the power station at Goedverwagting, continuing eastward to a substation at Columbia in Mahaicony, then turn south and east again toward Onverwagt in West Coast Berbice, where another substation is located.

The corridor will then cross the Berbice River and end at Number 53 Village along the Corentyne Coast, before linking onward to Moleson Creek.

When completed, the corridor will carry 69 kilovolts (kV) and 230kV transmission lines for the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL), along with cables from One Communications, internet service providers like ENet, and other utility operators.

According to the minister, these lines will be removed from the public roadways and relocated to the new corridor. 

He also used the opportunity to highlight a second major development unfolding just metres from where he stood, one of the largest housing schemes currently under construction in Guyana. The scheme begins about a mile and a half south of the East Coast Public Road at Enterprise.

“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,” Minister Nandlall explained.

The Ministry of Housing and Water has undertaken comprehensive engineering works, including filling dozens of trenches, constructing dozens of heavy-duty concrete bridges, and carefully studying which canals to retain as main drainage and irrigation arteries.

Retained canals have been dug out, cleaned, and fitted with flowing water systems, while streets, culverts and kokers have been demarcated and constructed across the area.

Minister Nandlall said hundreds of house lots have already been allocated at the location, and dozens of houses are currently under construction.

“What I’ve just described to you just in the vicinity of Enterprise in the backlands is 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 proper housing and get titles for their lands,” he said.

Beyond the physical infrastructure, he signalled that the utility corridor will underpin an electricity revolution, tied to the gas-to-energy project, which will cut power bills by half and deliver cooking gas at significantly reduced prices.

Minister Nandlall lamented, however, that transformative projects of this scale often go unnoticed because of their remote locations.

“When we speak about transformation, while you are seeing some, because you traverse where those transformations are taking place, there are other transformative projects which are ongoing that are not visible to many people,” he said.

Echoing sentiments recently expressed by President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the attorney general called on Guyanese to take ownership of the national development narrative rather than leave it to others to tell.