A Consultancy Services agreement was signed on March 7th, between the Government of Belize, through the Ministry of Works, and Dr. Nabeel Abdul-Raheem Consultants of Kuwait at US$736,150.
The Government of Belize has received a Technical Assistance Grant from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to assist in financing the services of consultants to prepare a technical and economic feasibility study and detailed designs for the Upgrading of Caracol Road Project (Georgeville to Caracol Archaeological Site).
The objective of the consultancy is to determine the technical and economic feasibility of the rehabilitation of the Caracol road to paved standards. The study will include the preparation of the detailed engineering design and preparation of bidding documents. Following procurement guidelines acceptable to our funding partner, the successful design consultant was selected after thorough review of technical and financial proposals of four international firms.
The Government has acknowledged that the tourism and agricultural sectors in the Chiquibul – Caracol Complex would benefit from upgrading the Caracol road.
The rehabilitation of the road aims to:
(i) Promote economic growth by reducing transport costs for agricultural and timber production
(ii) Improve access to the archaeological site and other tourist attractions located along the transport corridor
(iii) Contribute to the maintenance of ecosystem services associated with the road, including biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster risk reduction.
The Caracol Archaeological Reserve is the largest known Maya archaeological complex in Belize. The Reserve, along with other attractions such as the Mountain Pine Ridge and the Chiquibul Forest Reserve, are precious assets, which form the foundation of potentially highly successful tourism endeavors, which until now have only been minimally developed. The Caracol Archaeological Reserve is accessed through an unpaved road originating in Georgeville Village, having a length of approximately 46 miles from the George Price Highway to the archaeological site.
