The technical team preparing the site for the construction of the multi-million dollar cricket stadium will leave for India shortly to finalise technicalities.
The Guyana team includes engineer within the Ministry of Public Works, Walter Willis and consultant Suhas Joshi.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Se-cretary, Dr Roger Luncheon announced this at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
Among the matters the technical team would be discussing with the Indian government are the results of the soil survey conducted and the type of construction, according to Dr Luncheon.
The stadium will be used to host the 2007 World Cup Cricket and it is proposed to build a structure some five storeys high with a seating capacity of 15,000, at Provi-dence, East Bank Demerara.
Cabinet had earlier approved $78M for the preparation of the stadium and the tendering process will start shortly. The Deed of Gift for the land from GUYSUCO to government has been handed over and the corporation is expected to harvest sugarcane at the site this month and have the land ready for preparation by May. Construction is expected to begin by October this year, GINA stated.
The land survey was already conducted and cost some $4M.
Philip Allsopp was contracted by the government as the Bid Preparation Manager to have Guyana ready for the submission by the May 6 deadline. The ICC will send a verification team in May-June to ensure compliance with the bidding requirements.
And on June 6 the ICC will decide on which countries will be designated the eight host countries. The Caribbean is bidding to host the next World Cup Cricket and eight venues are required to host the 51 games.
During a state visit to India in August 2003, President Bharrat Jagdeo requested assistance to build the stadium and the government of India indicated its willingness. When President Jagdeo returned to India this year, the government agreed that this country will be given a grant of US$6M and offered a soft loan of US$14M to cover the stadium expenses, amounting to about US$20M, GINA added.