Following the end of an eight-year court battle with Toolsie Persaud Ltd over riverfront lands at Providence, East Bank Demerara, Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohammed is forging ahead with plans to develop the 25-acre property into a complex to serve his quarry business and the oil & gas sector, he says.
The area which is also close to the site for the planned New Demerara Harbour Bridge will also see some of the lands leased to the bridge contractor for storage of their materials and machinery.
“We had bought that land a while but it was held up in litigation with Toolsie Persaud. So for eight years we had to wait,” Mohammed told Stabroek News yesterday.
“So when that was over, we put in a plan, a master plan, for the development with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the other regulatory agencies. Now that those have been approved, we started our development work. It is planned to be a storage depot for our quarry, while it will also serve the oil and gas sector…,” he added.
Checks on the EPA’s website do not show an application for authorization from the company to the agency nor is there a project summary.
Mohammed explained that it was pointed out to him that the lands constitute the largest private space closest to the path where the Demerara Harbour Bridge will be built and that he would have to make provision to accommodate the contractor when work starts there.
But ‘Shell’ said that he does “not have a problem with that” and in the project master plan, necessary provisions will be made. “They will probably need to rent or lease a part. I do not have a problem with that…” he said.
However, he emphasized that most of the property will go towards storage of its quarry products for sale and distribution and the rest in provision of services to the oil sector.
Late last month, Mohammed signed a US$25 million agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company Limited to execute the works at his Hadi’s World Inc’s Quarry operation in Region Seven.
The company informed that the US$25 million project is expected to get underway in two months’ time.
In March of last year, this newspaper reported on Mohamed’s plans and back then he was optimistic that his proposed quarry business would be granted all the necessary permits. Mohamed had told this newspaper that he wanted to commence operations by January of this year, if he got the green light.
The next day, BK International registered its objection saying that the areas granted overlap acreage it had already applied for and prospected on.
The company in June then moved to the High Court to seek an injunction against what it said was a Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) decision to award 16,502 acres of land in the Mazaruni Mining District to Hadi’s World Inc. for quarrying operations.
That matter is still before the courts but Mohammed explained that a decision was taken to develop lands for the other licences that are not contested.
He explained, “He had filed an injunction but it wasn’t granted and he moved to court. We decided that we would go ahead with developing areas that he had not contested and which are not before the courts. So as you see, it was not all of the licences he had objected to… and it is why we went ahead with works on the other areas.”
“So we will start works on the non-contentious areas for which we have licences until the courts come to a decision on the other lands,” he added.
Hadi’s World Inc obtained the licences for Kwapau Quarry Areas 1 and 2, and ATANA Quarry Blocks 1 and 2 in the Mazaruni Mining District 3 after receiving the green light from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a statement from the company last month had informed.
And in 2018, this newspaper had reported of Mohammed’s first investment into the oil & gas sector when he made a big investment in a storage facility at Mc Doom, also on the East Bank of Demerara and about five minutes by boat to the Providence facility.
Then, Mohammed had told this newspaper that he invested heavily to transform the marshy and abandoned area into the now developed, industrially zoned ‘laydown’ yard for Falcon Logistics Incorporated and NNP Capital Partners Limited which he had gotten leased to the two companies for a five-year period.
Over on the West side of Demerara River, Mohammed has also invested in another oil & gas service provision business – Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase Inc (VEHSI) – with gold miner Andron Alphonso of ZRN Investment Inc; and Deygoo-Boyer of National Hardware Guyana Ltd.
That investment will see construction on the US$300 million shore base facility commencing sometime this month.
