Following engagement with residents and vendors at Plaisance on Tuesday evening, the Guyana Government will be engaging all those who will be affected by the planned four-lane upgrade of the Railway Embankment on the East Coast of Demerara.
Tuesday’s meeting was on the heels of vendors and residents of Plaisance protesting the late notice that was sent for them to move off of the embankment to allow for preliminary works to start.
However, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo led a group of government ministers to meet with the vendors and residents. It was reported that Jagdeo noted during the meeting that while the vendors would eventually have to be removed to facilitate the road upgrade, they should have been consulted first before being issued with removal notices.
Minister within the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry, Anand Persaud – one of the ministers who accompanies the Vice President to Plaisance on Tuesday – told this publication that following the engagement, those notices have been put on hold in order to allow for the vendors to be properly consulted.
“The notice that was sent out was put on hold because Vice President made mention to the vendors that the Ministry of Public Works would have engagements with the stall holders. That remeasurement and engagement will commence sometime [Wednesday] afternoon.”
“This engagement is not going to be only with the stall holders on the embankment at Plaisance but at Buxton and the other places that have vending on the government reserve along the East Coast of Demerara,” Persaud explained.
According to the junior Local Government Minister, focus will be placed on other areas along the Railway Embankment where there are no encumbrances while these engagements are ongoing.
“In as much as the four-lane [upgrade] has to be done, there are other areas along the East Coast where we can start works apart from the Plaisance area… There is a lot of expansive land along the embankment where there are not any markets or where people don’t encumber the reserves, and so works would start at those areas,” the minister stated.
In the meantime, as works are being done at those areas, vendors will be allowed to continue ply their trade while engaging the Public Works Ministry on at alternative vending spaces. The latter will be two-fold as government look for short term spaces to facilitate the vendors during the road construction period as well as permanent vending locations after the expansion works are completed.
Minister Persaud explained that, “If there is some space after the road is completed, we would be able to accommodate only some of the vendors. The Ministry is going to work along with them [the vendors] to look into another site for them to continue vending.”
Government is upgrading the current two-lane Railway Embankment Road to four lanes from Sheriff Street to Enmore, ECD. This project falls under the US$192 million Framework Concessional Loan Agreement from the Exim Bank of China to finance Phase II of the East Coast Road Project, which includes the include four-lane expansion of the Railway Embankment Road as well as the extension of the main East Coast Roadway from Orange Nassau to Mahaica and the rehabilitation of the existing East Coast Demerara Road from Belfield to Orange Nassau.
Construction works are expected to start this year.
Hence, the Public Works Ministry has embarked on preliminary works including demarcating the railway embankment.
But Plaisance vendors complained they only received the notices three days before the deadline. It was reported that the document signed Chief Works Officer at the Public Works Ministry, Ron Rahaman, had a seven-day deadline for all encroachment along the embankment such as tractors, trailers, derelict vehicles, and roadside vending to be removed.
In a subsequent statement from the Public Works Ministry on Tuesday morning, both vendors and residents along the Railway Embankment have been notified of the impending road extension and those who were noticed expanding their vending operations as well as yard fencing have also been cautioned against such practices.
The Ministry reminded that the road reserve along the entire public road network is the property of the Government of Guyana, and all encroachment on the reserve will be removed. Failure to comply will result in the ministry taking action in accordance with Chapter 51:01 of the Road Act of the Laws of Guyana.
Moreover, the Ministry said it will continue to serve these notices wherever encroachments are observed especially along main thoroughfares where major infrastructural works are either underway or to start.
