PM Skerrit Visits Housing Developments in Portsmouth

The Hon. Prime Minister on February 18, visited the sites of the Georgetown and Cotton Hill Housing Settlements to get a first-hand view of the progress of the project.

This is all part of government’s initiative to build comfortable and adequate housing conditions for citizens and also in keeping with the mandate of making Dominica the first climate resilient country in the world.

In June 2018, the Government of Dominica broke ground for the Northern Housing Development which is also known as The Phoenix Development in Georgetown, Glanvillia where the first 68 of 226 homes will be constructed.

Housing projects such as the Georgetown and Cotton Hill Projects are ongoing in other parts of the island such as Castle Bruce, La Plaine and Boetica.

The Hon Prime Minister was pleased with the progress of the project and revealed that as the Minister for Housing and Finance he has taken a decision to expand the housing development in Cotton Hill.

“These are major projects that will address a significant challenge of the housing difficulties that we have in both Lagon and Portsmouth; and this was the firm the commitment we gave to the residents. Obviously we were held back by the hurricane but since 2018 we’ve made tremendous progress in housing, not only here but in the east and other parts of the country. I have also taken the decision as the minister for housing to expand the existing number of units in Cotton Hill because we have about 120 people applying for homes so we intend to address the situation for 120 families in the Lagon area because the people really need to improve their homes. A number of them have small structures on squatted lands and we need to certainly get them out of that situation and elevate their standard of living.”

The modern developments will also have all electrical, telephone and cable lines ran underground. The Georgetown Development will happen in two phases, sixty-eight in phase one and 158 in phase two. Phase one is expected to be completed by August 2019 and the Cotton Hill Project will be complete by November 2019.

The Hon Prime Minister says that these two housing development projects are examples of the impact the Citizenship by Investment Programme has on the country.

“As you know this project is financed with funds from the Citizenship by Investment program yet another tangible manifestation of the prudent and responsible and visible use of the CBI funds. Much to the benefit and satisfaction and improvement of our country and our citizens. So, I’m very excited to visit these two projects today and to see the projects first hand and to see what else we need to do to assist the residents of Portsmouth and the Cottage constituency.”

The project is being developed by Montreal Management Consultants Establishment (MMCE), the same developers of the Bellevue Chopin Housing Project for the people of Petite Savanne.

Source: news.gov.dm

Published: 21 February 2019