Two months after Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand was told that the Kitty Market could be reopened within a week’s time, the market remains closed as of September 16 with the constituency councillor saying that he is tired of raising the matter at the council’s statutory meetings.
Last July 16, Manickchand shared a Facebook post on her page that showed her touring the facility at Alexander Street, Kitty and interacting with the handful of vendors who still operate nearby.
“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.” The visit had followed a report in Kiskadee Watch a few days earlier about the decade-long delay in commissioning the market.
It was here that she was told by the Head of Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Kesh Nandlall that the issues relating to GPL, including the metering of stalls, could have been wrapped up within a week. The City Council had said the GPL issues were the only ones affecting the reopening.
But as of September 15, Constituency Two Councillor for Kitty/Subryanville Rudolph Dyal told Kiskadee Watch that the GPL issues have not yet been sorted out. Since the minister’s visit, he said he has kept asking for an update on the reopening at every statutory meeting until he got tired of doing so and decided not to bring it up at last Monday’s meeting. “I was so disgusted with the matter that I didn’t ask again,” he stated.
The councillor shared that with the prolonged delay in reopening the market, sections which were already repaired have started to deteriorate again and so need to be done over before reopening. He cited the example of a stall in front of the market that needs to have its ceiling redone having already collapsed.
Town Clerk Candace Nelson told this publication on September 16 that she is not sure about the status of the project as she is on leave and has not been keeping up. Meanwhile, efforts to reach Mayor Alfred Mentore for comment proved futile.
During her visit, Manickchand had 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 had shared.
At the sod-turning ceremony for a new East Ruimveldt Market in July, the Town Clerk had told Kiskadee Watch that the M&CC was still working with 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.”
The Mayor, in a subsequent statement, said 97 percent of the work was completed on the market and the reopening was imminent. “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 were ready and eager to move into the market and that by the next statutory meeting on July 27, the council would have been been 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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