City Hall will begin a $240M restoration of the Kitty Market next week, according to Town Clerk Royston King, who says the City Engineer’s Department has concluded that it possesses sufficient expertise to complete all necessary works.
“Last Thursday, a team from City Hall did a comprehensive inspection of the building and gauged its structural soundness. They concluded that the needs of the Kitty Market are not beyond our competencies and, therefore, work will begin from next Wednesday,” King told reporters yesterday.
He noted that the 46 stallholders who presently operate in the market will be shifted to a space not far from the present location to allow for the restoration works.
Though the municipality has and will continue to seek support from the central government in funding this project, King told Stabroek News that presently the plan is to complete the work in phases using monies from the city’s coffers.
The Kitty market has long been in a dilapidated state and in 2013, the Guyana Fire Service listed it among the derelict buildings within the city that were fire hazards.
Last month, during a city tour Mayor Hamilton Green had told reporters that restoration of the Kitty market would be in the hands of the next Mayor of Georgetown.
“Local government elections is a few weeks away and I don’t want to make a prognosis [as to when the restoration would start.] It would have to be executed by the new mayor,” Green had said when asked how early works would begin at the market.
According to Green, efforts were being made to identify a suitable alternative site for the vendors as works could not begin while the vendors were operating in the space.
Discussions had been held with the owner of land located on Shell Road, Kitty, which had been identified as a possible space for housing the vendors.
The owner of the land, Rudolf Dyal, had told Stabroek News that he is willing to rent the land to the city council for the refurbishing of the market to take place.
While there is no word on how those discussions were concluded, Stabroek News understands that this is not the site to which the vendors will be relocated.
