Ahead of the official launch of their manifestos, the Alliance For Change and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic are already providing citizens with insights into their plans for D’ Urban Park. The former is proposing to use tax dollars to build a Grand Central Station while the incumbent is mulling a state-of-the-art museum.
Leader of the AFC, Nigel Hughes recently underscored the need for a transportation system/network that provides better mobility around the congested city. During an interview on Context, a talk show by veteran journalist Enrico Woolford, Hughes said his party plans to introduce a light railway system between Mahaica and Georgetown, and also between Diamond and Georgetown. “Durban Park, the very famous and popular Durban Park, we will make that as a transportation hub. So everything coming into the capital from outside of the city will converge in Durban Park,” said Hughes.
He added, “Then if you wanted to go into Georgetown and its environs, you would stop off of Durban Park, you would have the feeder, whether it’s buses or the light rail would come to Durban Park. So Durban Park would become like your Victoria Station or your Grand Central Station.”
The foregoing, he said, would be adequately supported by a separate Ministry of Transportation outside of Public Works that deals with finding transportation solutions throughout the country. “It’s a lot of data that needs to be processed, and I think a lot of what we see now is just sort of knee-jerk reactions…”
As for the PPP’s plans, President Irfaan Ali said recently that a new museum will be situated at the previous coalition government’s failed and decrepit D’urban Park, adding that it will contribute to the capital city’s evolving landscape. “That is an area that we are going to put this magnificent new national museum to celebrate who we are,” President Ali said.
The D’Urban Park was built by the APNU+AFC regime at an approximate cost of $1 billion. Several iterations of the Auditor General’s report flagged the project for being shrouded in corruption as $600 million paid to contractors could not be accounted for.
Another sum, $500 million, was taken from the treasury to help clear the debts of the special purpose company in charge of overseeing works, but proper documentation to show transparent spending was never produced to the Audit Office.
In the last five years, the facility has become an eyesore, used in part as a shelter by vagrants, ants nests and other animals.
