Pigeon Island occupants promised long-awaited land titles by yearend

The process of regularising the Pigeon Island squatting area, located on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), is near complete and occupants have been promised their land titles by yearend.

Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Susan Rodrigues said that those lands are being transferred from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) for this purpose.

Once that process is complete, she explained that the area will be subdivided and the government will soon distribute the long-awaited land titles to some 52 occupants.

Decades ago, Pigeon Island was an undeveloped space that people started to squat on incrementally. Over time, it has become a bustling community filled with several large housing structures and some businesses.

Rodrigues, while speaking at a government outreach activity in the area on Tuesday, reminded people that it was President Dr. Irfaan Ali who started the process of regularising the area in 2015, when he served as the Minister of Housing and Water.

Importantly, President Ali, who also spoke at the outreach activity, assured residents that the regularisation process will be soon completed.

“That is ongoing and once we all cooperate, that will be completed by the end of the year,” President Ali told the residents.

As the government moves to regularise the area, the President also announced that significant infrastructural development and upgrades, billed at $80 million, are promised too.

Those works will include the construction of new asphaltic concrete roads and drainage works meant to protect the community from flooding. And the Head of State said that the government hopes to provide temporary employment to people in the community so that they can be involved in those activities.