THE Charity waterfront area will undergo massive transformation with the award of a multi-million-dollar project which has commenced within the Charity/Ursara area.

The project to repair the road was awarded through the Ministry of Public Works and will see construction of the road and sea-defence work.

According to Rameez Baksh, the acting overseer of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), the project was delayed over approximately four years due to non-cooperation of the vendors. But now the council has decided that the project must commence in 2023.

The former government had awarded a contract for this road in 2018, but the project has been continuously stalled.

“Every year the money going back and the road getting worst; we decided from at council level to ensure that it’s done in 2023, and this will help prevent flooding in the market area since the current sea-defence structure can undermine anytime,” Baksh said.

On Friday afternoon, the council along with police ranks and a government Regional Democratic Councillor, Faraz Baskh, went around the area where the team dismantled stalls that were close to the sea defence and stalls that had additional adjustments close to the project area.

He said that several notices were issued to stall owners every year since 2018, informing them about the project and not to make extension to their stalls.

But despite this, Rameez said most of the vendors ignored the notices and extended their stalls.

“We have to clear the area so that machinery can enter; with the extension work, the machinery will hit [the stalls]. We have already issued notices on this, and the vendors just are not heeding,” the acting overseer said.

Rameez, in responding to a Facebook video by a vendor, said that at no time were any of the stalls broken. He said that structures and extensions that were in the way of the project were taken down.

He also explained that for the project to commence, all structures that were in the way of the project site must be cleared and it is the responsibility of the NDC to do so. He explained that so far 85 per cent of the vendors have co-operated, but the others are hesitant.

“We are not stopping anyone from vending, all we want is for the project to commence; the vendors can sell at the tarmac but again, most of them are refusing.”

He added, “We went and verbally talk to the owners: we told them we need to start the project and if the machines touch the stalls, then it will break it so we had advised for them not to do additional extensions and they ignored.”

On Saturday, several residents via social media commended the NDC for clearing the stalls. One resident, Andreiko Basir, wrote that he is happy with the move and he was glad to see the area is now clean and organised. He said the clearing will facilitate the regularization process.

“We wanted this for years, but the vendors just keep building shabby looking stalls and it was looking untidy, Charity is transforming and we need to also keep it clean,” another resident commented.