…targeting residential, commercial purposes

By Lisa Hamilton

GOVERNMENT will soon make available some 6000 acres of residential and commercial lands in the Demerara-Mahaica Region, Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission, Trevor Benn has said.

The total land allocation will represent some 51 per cent of Georgetown’s landmass. Benn said it is for modern development for residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural purposes.

Benn made the announcement on Monday during the commission’s year-end meeting. He revealed that the project comes under the commission’s Land Policy, Planning and Projects Division. “We’ve just completed a concept for the potential opening up of approximately 6,000 acres of land for development for residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural purposes. We want to make sure that we do not replicate what we call at Lands and Surveys ‘the house lot schemes’ but to have real forward looking land development schemes,” Benn said.
He went on to explain that these would be unlike the schemes now observed in the capital city and elsewhere as they would take on modern designs catering for the needs of both residents and businesses.

“It will capture better roads, sidewalks and greenspaces and a mix of business and commercial and residential lots so that we can really move into the 21st century in the way we design our facilities,” the commissioner said.

Though opting against stating the exact location to guard against squatting, Benn told the media that a procurement process will take place for the area’s development and further details will be revealed in due time. “The most I will say to you now is that we have identified 6,000 acres, it’s in the Region Four area and allow us some time,” he urged.
“We will advertise for bidders using a particular design that we have developed. They will have to meet those designs because they cannot have any more roads where only one car can pass. It has to be an upgrade of Georgetown. This area when completed will be about 51 per cent of the Georgetown land mass, a little more than half of what Georgetown is when its designed and developed but at this time we don’t want to mention where that is until we are ready to do the work.”

For 2018, the commissioner noted that Guyana experienced many Expressions of Interests (EoIs) for land.

The highest demand for land is concentrated in Demerara-Mahaica followed by areas such as Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo (Region Nine); Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region 10) and East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six). Most of the applications are for agriculture-industrial purposes. In 2018 a total of 625 applications for title to public lands were filed with the commission; 293 new titles were issued and 141 transfers of title completed.