Plans are forging ahead to transform the Lusignan, East Coast Demerara shoreline with an airport that builds out north into the Atlantic Ocean and a 115-room hotel, at the property that local engineer Harrychand Tulsi, hopes to make into an oil and gas business centre and disaster relief hub.
When completed, the property will house the Orinduik Marine Services Inc (OMS), Institute of Maritime Training & Advanced Research (IMTAR), Lusignan Hotel Inc, Lusignan Aviation Centre Inc (LACI), and ODITC facility, which is a joint venture with Guyana’s Orinduik Development Incorporated, Windsor Technologies, and 3t EnerMech.
“We have changed course [from building on land], but to build out in the ocean requires a lot more engineering and a lot more designing. So we have hired specialists; an engineering company out of the US to do the designs. [This] is a company that specialises in this type of works…” Tulsi told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview as he outlined plans for the companies he founded.
“So here it’s an aviation centre; it will cater for helicopters and jets, smaller jets. Initially, we were just looking at an airport, but now, having to go out in the ocean, you just kill two birds with one stone, because the requirements are almost the same,” he added.
Lloyds Engineering Works Ltd, a premier engineering and environmental firm specialising in port and harbour facilities, as well as industrial, structural, and civil engineering projects, has already started on their designs and Tulsi explained that as the technology is proprietary, it could not be shared with the newspaper.
Tulsi explained that the changes to the development are due to the rapid transformation this country has undergone since oil was discovered in 2015, also taking into consideration, development projections for the future as given by many business and other analysts.
When he started investing in a heliport back in 2019, Tulsi he said that he had hoped it would be one of the first here to provide the oil and gas industry with helicopter services needed, but as time progressed, the needs became greater and he saw room also for training and certification of locals and then providing accommodation and dining.
In 2022, the US$20 million 3T EnerMech Guyana Training Centre of Excellence was launched and earlier this month Orinduik Marine Services Inc was inaugurated. By the end of this year, Tulsi hopes that the Institute of Maritime Training & Advanced Research (IMTAR) will also be added to the list of completed projects.
But it doesn’t stop there, as he is focussed on completing the Lusignan Hotel also by the end of this year and to forge ahead with the Lusignan Aviation Centre (LACI) which Tulsi noted should be ready by the end of 2027.
The hotel is a prefabricated building that had its sections shipped here from the US in containers.
“The hotel is a prefabricated hotel with 115 rooms. It is made in the USA and to US standards. So each of the white units, that looks like covered containers, that is a complete apartment and they now have to just be fitted,” he explained.
“The hotel is going to be right next to training centre, just west of it… it’s commercial but in the first instance, it will be for OMS; our staff, our students et cetera. Actually, we’re doing a fine-dining restaurant on the second floor, which would have a halal kitchen and a vegetarian kitchen. The bottom floor you have the regular kitchen. So it’s for the public,” he added.
Tulsi said that Lusignan Hotel will also consist of an Olympic-sized pool and he believes it adds to the ‘one stop’ service destination catered for oil and gas support staff.
“Here, we were looking at an oil and gas training centre and a heliport with a hotel to come afterwards, because they support each other. If you have the heliport here and the hotel there, then in the morning, when you have to fly out at 5 am or 5:30 am, it would be easy for the staff to just zip over from there, shuttled in a nice bus over to the airport. Here they go through the clearance, see the building is already there, get the stuff scanned and so on. Currently, they’re staying in various places. Some of them have to be up at about two o’clock in the morning to get picked up and transported and so on. This would be lot easier for them here,” he reasoned.
“They can gather their breakfast in a hotel next door to where they leave from. We can also do takeaway lunches if that’s needed, because the hotel is here for 24-hour food service. And then when they come in the evening, because there’s a rotation system where they spend two weeks or four weeks optional and will need things at whatever time they come in. So when staff comes, if they need a beer, they need food, they need some entertainment right away, they just come out and just zip over and get food and stuff. That’s where the project was planned. That aspect has remained, also the support for the staff and students in the training centre, accommodation in the hotel and so on,” he added.
What was not initially planned was the airport that goes out into the Atlantic and that saw the heliport investment reworked to accommodate additional safety measures.
“We have a kilometre of seaside land there. The remote end, it’s behind the centre. So we thought that would have been the ideal location to do the landing and take-off, as that is the noisiest part of the helicopter operation. That design was done on that, but then Exxon, their aviation personnel came from Texas and they said, given the aircraft used and for the future, it will be necessary to take off into the wind. And in Guyana here we have trade winds and it is almost consistently blowing from north, northeast inland. So they prefer the runway, and it makes a lot of technical sense, and I fully agree with that,” he expressed.
He said that was the reason for the “changed course” and that his company has currently hired Lloyds to determine how sound and best the outward lying airport would be.
Tulsi was quick to note that while most persons believe that helicopters do not need any runway space, this was not true. “A lot of people do not realise that heavily-laden choppers need a runway too and have to get what you call a rejection area. If you have to abort the flight, there has to be good, suitable landing area for them to come down back. When you start moving you have to have enough area if you have to come back down,” explained.
Investing in a northward ocean bound airport at Lusignan he said, was also looked at from the perspective that the Ogle and Timehri airports do not hold room for expansion.
“Before long, Guyana, if what is happening now continues, will be a somewhat rich place, and you’ll have a lot of Gulf Stream private jets and so on coming here and they will need space [to land and park] and they can’t use Ogle. So there has to be an alternative. We’re faced with a situation where Ogle isn’t expandable [any] more, and Timehri is not expanding. But here we can expand, limitless into the ocean. And the further you go out into the ocean, the less impact it has on the population in terms of noise and risk as well,” Tulsi contended.
Having an airport at the East Coast location, Tulsi also pointed out, gives easy and quicker access to aircraft going to the Caribbean islands. And with those territories prone to hurricane season, CARICOM’s Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) has said that here could serve as a hub.
“There’s been a number of other approaches to us, including CARICOM’s [CDEMA]… and they thought this is an ideal location to base their operations, because if you have a hurricane, it mashes up the islands, and you can’t work out of the islands. But if you have a hurricane response zone here it would be easy to get to and fro… so they wanted to come and work out of here.”
The benefits of the airport also, according to Tulsi, would be of value to local business persons looking at exporting produce in the region.
“Also, what has happened over the last couple years is there is an increase in trade of produce, agricultural produce, between Guyana and the islands, so that also needs rapid transport, because it’s perishable stuff. You need cold storage and rapid transport. So we are including that into the design given the potential.”
He was quick to point out that no area of studies on environmental impact would be spared as he would ensure that all necessary permits are had for the airport, as with all the other projects he has undertaken.
“So we have permission from the Ministry of Public Works, Sea Defence Board, and EPA, for the initial heliport, but for this redesign and expansion, we have to go back and we will. We will ensure all the requirements are met and that is why we hired the experts…” Tulsi assured.
