Three months after residents of Marchin Road, Cunupia, staged a protest over the closure of the main road in their area, the problem has been rectified with the commissioning of a new bridge.
Works and Transport Minister, who was on hand for the official ceremony, praised the work done to dredge and bank the Marchin River ahead of the rainy season.
The road had been closed last October and a temporary road diversion that had been set up was also closed due to safety concerns following excessive rainfall late last year.
Commenting on problems affecting the project, Sinanan said: “Like so many of our projects, we do have a cash flow problem and from time to time, you might have a slight delay with the payments but the job did not stop for any length of time.”
He said although the tender had only gone out one year ago, the project had been completed under budget. The original contract price was $7.18 million VAT inclusive, but Government paid $5.5 million VAT inclusive.
Contractor Total Field Execution Services Limited “took just two or three months over the duration”, Sinanan said.
“Things are tight. We do have a constraint in terms of financing but it is not stopping the work. Yes, things are a little bit slower than we expected but it is happening,” he said.
Resident Nazmun Hosein, 56, said she was happy to see the work completed because there had been “too much flooding” in the area.
Pointing to old appliances littering her front yard, she said: “We were affected during the last set of flooding last year. We had to replace our fridge, stove, washing machine, all my furniture was damaged but hopefully, this won’t happen now.”
Hosein added: “They do a very good work and I am pleased.”