With the city on the brink of going to court concerning the planned construction of a Qatari hotel on disputed lands along Carifesta Avenue, preparatory works appear to be continuing for the US$300 million project.
Chief Citizen Alfred Mentore when contacted on Sunday said that he and councillors are still conducting extensive research on the Guyana National Service (GNS) and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) which were bequeathed to the city over 130 years ago.
He said that the council’s attorneys are fully involved and once the research is completed, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will be moving to the High Court.
The government is adamant that the lands for the Qatari hotel come under the purview of the state.
When Stabroek News visited the location on Sunday, the grounds where the hotel, seafront and convention centre will be built were covered with sand and mud.
Amid a claim by the M&CC that it controls the land on which the five-star hotel is to be built by a Qatari investor, the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC) asserted that the state has a lien over the area and declared that it is prepared to defend the relevant transport.
In a lengthy statement on March 6th of this year, the GLSC said it hopes the latest information provided brings the disputation to an end.
It had issued a previous statement on February 20th rebuffing the city’s claim to the area but this had not stopped Mentore from pressing Georgetown’s claim.
Settling the issue is pivotal otherwise the Qatari investor, Assets Group could end up in the middle of a legal battle.
Aside from the claim to the land, the city has also argued that the government and the Qatari investor have descended on the area completely ignoring municipal regulations and illegally fencing the property etc.
