Rebuilding of destroyed PC dormitory on fast track
- HPS
Guyana Chronicle
May 13, 2004
REBUILDING of the President's College (PC) dormitory, which was recently destroyed by a mysterious fire at Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, is being fast-tracked so that work can begin in the shortest possible time.
Making the disclosure at his weekly media briefing yesterday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr Roger Luncheon said funding for the reconstruction is assured and Ministry of Finance has been approached for its 'no-objection' to selective tendering to expedite the contract awarding process.
He said, in addition, Ministry of Education has resorted to using a standard design, thus obviating the need to hire consultants for architectural designing and further reducing the time needed to implement the measures necessary for beginning the project.
Luncheon said engineers from Ministry of Education have estimated the cost of reconstructing the place to be between $40M and $50M.
However, the final costing will be done when the bidding and valuation processes are completed and it is anticipated that construction would start late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of this year.
Disaster struck the School of Excellence when a blaze of unknown origin completely razed one of the dormitories in a matter of minutes last month.
Fortunately, there were no human casualties but the resulting loss was in the vicinity of $100M, with the 100 students who were housed there losing all their books, cash, clothing and other valuables.
Several staff members lost their salaries and electrical equipment, as well.