Proposed tourism and residential project at Anse à la Mouche |26 August 2019

The meeting in progress

Proposed road diversion faces strong resistance

Residents, business owners and other stakeholders of Anse à la Mouche and west Mahé in general are totally against a proposition to divert the main road along the coast of Anse à la Mouche as part of a tourism and residential development project being proposed around the beachfront of the said area.

During a meeting held on Saturday afternoon at the Anse Boileau community centre, all the representatives of the development team of the proposed project by the UAE based developer Royal Development Company and a few government officials, met residents and other interested stakeholders to inform them of and get their input on the proposed development being planned for the area.

The mixed-use project expects to include a four-star hotel with 120 rooms, spa and gym facilities, a retail village with supermarket, restaurants, entertainment facilities, 14 two-bedrooms and 10 one-bedroom apartments, 12 affordable houses, accommodation for over 100 expatriate employees among other facilities.

Ian Charlette, the environment consultant for the project, said it will be carried out in two phases with the first phase being an investment of USD 75 million expected to start in the first quarter of 2020 and completed at the end of the same year with the opening of the hotel.

The project being proposed will be carried out on Parcels C7983 and C6626, a land size of some 820,000 square metres sprawling.

Zinon Marinakos, the master planner and representative of the DSA Architects and Engineers for the project, was the first to present the concept to the audience who had come in large numbers to listen to the presentations, seek clarifications and have all their questions answered.

Andreas Braeuer, representative of the developer Royal Development Company (RDC), highlighted the benefits that such a mixed-use development would bring for the community of the region such as additional services, creation of new jobs, improve drainage system in the area, beach amenities, convenience for people in the community as well as improved beach experience and entertainment activities.

While the majority of residents do not have any problem with the developments, they are all against the road being diverted from the coast to make way for the development.

Among the different points raised include the need to leave the road where it is but to improve it and move the project further up towards the mountain instead, if the project takes into consideration the protection of wetlands in the area, the issue that the land was acquired for public interest and therefore cannot be leased privately was also raised, the need to outsource accommodation for staff, impact of the proposed project on the PUC power lines, why the government is leasing undeveloped land when there are many white elephants around the country namely the ex-Mahé Beach, the Reef Hotel among others which could have been leased. On the latter, officials from the tourism department said there are investors already showing interest in these ex-hotel sites.

It is to be recalled that some 10 years ago a similar project was proposed for the same area but at that time it was by Qatar based investors but it was never materialised even though the whole area was fenced off and the majority of residents in the area were relocated to Santa Maria.  

All the concerns, propositions, questions will now be closely analysed and reviewed by the project team in consultation with government before coming back to the people of the community.