Several Corentyne villages to get street lights

On the heels of several accidents at Corentyne, Berbice, Region Six, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will be installing street lights in critical areas of the Region.

For 2017, the Ministry’s traffic and safety maintenance department is exploring the idea of installing street lights along the Number 19 road, as well as other areas in Upper Corentyne.

The Ministry’s Senior Projects Engineer, Kester Hinds noted that the Number 19 road has also been a subject of protest and anger by residents for years.

Residents consider the long road a dangerous one due to the absence of street lights. “We are working to correct this and bring relief to the residents as soon as we can, because it is long awaited,” Hinds said.

Additionally, the traffic and safety maintenance department also has an ongoing exercise to implement road safety measures across schools in Guyana. Currently road markings and pedestrian crossings are being carried out.

“We’ve done in excess of 200 pedestrians crossings within Georgetown, and we would have completed 75 percent of those, particularly at schools and other areas,” the engineer explained.

Meanwhile, the road safety works which were expected to commence on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown, were delayed due to some setbacks. Hinds revealed that they are awaiting approval from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to award the contract.

“We were expecting to commence during the school break (August holidays) but because of this we were delayed, however, it is anticipated that we should commence works within a month’s time, so our children can be saved,” Hinds explained.

Minster of Public Infrastructure David Patterson in his 2016 budget presentation noted that the projects are in conjunction with the measures in the budget to boost road safety.

The Minister added that in 2015 there were 118 road fatalities, and “if one life is saved, then we regard this as a worthwhile measure.”

(GINA)