Guyana and India sign cooperation agreement

Guyana and India have signed a cooperation agreement for the construction of the Indian Arrival monument that collapsed last year.

Natural Resource Minister Raphael Trotman said that the David Granger administration had made a mistake into believing that the design plan which it inherited from the previous administration would have worked. In April last year, the monument collapsed, while under construction.

Too heavy for swampland

Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson said that a soil test carried out showed that the 17-ton statue was too heavy to lay on the swamp-land. He said the area is known to be the ground of a former cane field.

Trotman said that the issue was raised in February with Indian government officials when he and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge visited that Asian country.

He said the Indian government has committed to providing an engineer, architect and sculptor for the project.

Indian PMm to visit

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Guyana before the end of this year and, Trotma said the government hopes the monument could be completed by then.

He said all relevant documents have already been sent to India and are being examined by the experts there.

Patterson said “hindsight is 20/20 vision” and the government is now looking to have the works expedited although he could not disclose the cost of the project.