Within a week, the outstanding works preventing the Kitty Market from reopening could be completed, Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand was told during a walkabout there yesterday.
The visit by Manickchand followed a report in Kiskadee Watch on Tuesday about the decade-long delay in commissioning the market.
In a video posted on her Facebook page, the minister toured the facility and spoke to the handful of vendors who operate nearby in the company of city and other officials like Town Clerk Candace Nelson and City Engineer Colvern Venture, among others.
“We have to move vision to execution,” she expressed, adding, “It’s undesirable to have any project take this long. A lot of people have been inconvenienced, not only vendors but people who want to come and shop in the market.”
She also urged the relevant officers to ensure that a fair process is conducted to determine how people will be awarded the stalls inside of the market.
“Repairs were started by the M&CC in 2016 for the Kitty Market which was established in the 1800s and expanded in 1970. We MUST move past ‘construction ongoing’ to MARKET OPENED. And we shall. Visited there today and the vendors and residents of this market must enjoy some fair and sensible relief. And they will,” Manickchand expressed.
Just last Saturday, on the sidelines of the sod turning ceremony for a new East Ruimveldt Market, the Town Clerk told Kiskadee Watch that the M&CC was still working with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to have meters supplied to the individual stalls. “As soon as those are supplied, we will be opening,” she assured.
Responding to claims that the new stall prices are exorbitant, she said: “Given that it’s a new space, an upgraded space, and the plans that we have for it, we couldn’t go back to the old price range that we had. So it was a slight increase and it is based on the size of the stall; it’s not a fixed price for all of the stalls.”
Mayor Alfred Mentore, in a statement yesterday, said he wanted to respond to the article published by Kiskadee Watch on Tuesday on the 10-year delay of the market.
“We are 97 percent complete and at any point, we will be moving to have the market opened. We wanted to have the market opened for some time now, but it’s not by our doing; we are working with GPL to get every one of the vendors there a meter.”
Mentore said many of the vendors are ready and eager to move into the market and that by the next statutory meeting on July 27, the council will be able to state the exact date of the opening.
The rehabilitation project, which commenced in 2016 and was originally expected to take just a few months, has been beset by years of delays, contract changes and funding challenges, leaving vendors displaced and the market closed far longer than initially anticipated.
The restoration works include electrical installations, plumbing, painting, flooring, fencing, drainage improvements and external beautification. The prolonged timeline stands in sharp contrast to the original expectations when repairs commenced in February 2016. At the time, the municipality had projected that restoration would last between three and five months, with vendors relocated in phases while work progressed. The project carried an estimated cost of approximately $240 million.
Over the years, however, the rehabilitation encountered repeated setbacks. In 2019, vendors were uncertain about when they would be allowed to return to the facility after three years of construction. At the time, a further $17.7 million contract had been awarded to complete portions of the first phase, including market stalls, floor tiling and ceiling works. Vendors also expressed concerns over receiving little information from City Hall regarding reopening plans and the allocation of stalls.
An earlier $25 million contract had also been awarded under the Georgetown Restoration Programme to complete sections of the first phase.
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