Local govt ministry upgrade works outside Stabroek Market dislocate bus parks, truckers

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 November 2025, 8:43 by Writer

Commencement works to construct a concrete recreational platform outside Stabroek Market have disrupted vending and vehicular parking in that area.

A very small number of phone card, beverage vendors, and bus operators on the Lodge, Guyhoc and South Ruimveldt routes arrived on Thursday morning to see a plywood wall being erected to enclose a large section outside the front of the Stabroek Market.

A police officer was assigned to the area to oversee the movement of the vendors outside the now enclosed area. Delivery trucks that usually deliver supplies to vendors up to about 8 a.m. daily were forced to find alternative parking in the taxi parking area outside Demico. A police officer told one of the drivers that eventually the trucks would have to leave the taxi stand. “What I know is that you can’t stay here in the taxi park. You have to find somewhere else, probably on Brickdam,” the officer said.

Inside the area, workmen began moving in tools and construction materials to begin works that could last up to two weeks.

But local government minister Priya Manickchand on Thursday said the contractor did not communicate effectively with persons who occupy the area.

She assured that there was no immediate plan to move vendors off the streets. “There is no intention at this stage, at all and especially not at this time,” she told Demerara Waves Online News.

The minister said the project entails the construction of a raised stage with a pavement around it where we can have vendors,” she said. Ms Manickchand said two vendors would be temporarily affected because, after the works have been completed, they can return.

She said mostly privately-owned cars and the two vendors are there.

The minister said the works were part of efforts to upgrade Georgetown and, in the process, a number of persons would be affected. “We can leave everything as is but if we want to bring about change, it will come about with a little bit of resistance. I’m aware of that,” she said.

One of the truckers said the works should have been pushed back until after the Christmas Season because of increased traffic congestion in the City and in the Stabroek area. He said vehicles bringing construction materials in the area would have to costless with other vehicles in the already congested area.