Vendors of the Kitty Market, which is currently under renovation, have expressed frustration at the slow
Ongoing renovation work at the Kitty Market
pace at which the work is being carried out, since it is affecting their businesses.
Rehabilitation works on the dilapidated market got underway some two months ago, after many years of neglect. Vendors had been relocated nearby to facilitate the process.
However, according to them, the process seems to be taking “too long” to be completed.
Guyana Times visited the market on Monday, where vendors, who were relocated to the eastern side of the market, related their distaste for the temporary location.
According to one of the vendors, C Persaud, the process seems to be moving at turtle pace much to their discomfort.
“I don’t know when they will finish for us to go back in there. Don’t you see they have not gone anywhere with the top much less to start the bottom and that is where we have to go,” Persaud said.
He added that he and the other vendors were relocated on February 5 and were told that they would be able to access their new stalls in May.
As one vendor who asked not to be named said, “It looks like Christmas will come and reach us here and pass us too.”
During the visit on Monday, this publication noticed that several stalls were unoccupied as a result of the heavy downpour on Monday.
According to the vendors, the temporary location is costing them dearly since they are not getting adequate sales to sustain themselves and families.
“I did not get a sale for the day here and people don’t even know where we are; I have to be looking for customers on the road to catch my hand a little,” another vendor told this newspaper.
Vendors complained too that the small spaces they were allotted at the temporary relocation area are preventing them from displaying their goods hence hampering their sales.
The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) had estimated that the rehabilitation of the landmark would take three to five months to be completed.
The Kitty Market was established in 1882 at the railway line. In 1970, it was extended after it was taken over by the M&CC. The Market was meant to be utilised by Georgetown’s Atlantic Coast neighbourhoods in the city’s east end including Bel Air, Campbellville and Prashad Nagar.
