- Preliminary work which includes drawing the master plan has begun on a new smart city in Zimbabwe.
- The government of Zimbabwe has announced plans to invest US 23 million into development of a new city around Mt Hampden, near Harare.
Zimbabwe’s acting director of spatial planning and development in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Mr Honesty Magaya made the announcement this week. He revealed that preliminary work that includes drawing the masterplan have already begun.
Mount Hampden is a village in Mashonaland East province in Zimbabwe. It is about 11 miles from the capital Harare.
According to Mr Magaya, the ministries of National Housing and Social Amenities, and Local Government and Public Works are the lead agents through which the preliminary work will be undertaken. US 13m has been reserved for developing a masterplan, while US 10m will be used for feasibility studies and other primary works.
“After the development of the masterplan, the project will move to the next phase which involves layout planning and after all these stages, we will then zero in on the issue of selling commercial stands. The intention is that there will be a separate local authority which will be managing the city,” said Mr. Magaya.
The new city will accommodate Government ministries, Parliament, residential areas, shopping malls, hotels and industries. The new Parliament Building currently under construction in Mt Hampden is the nucleus around which the city will be developed.
The city will be modelled as a smart city, with emphasis on information and communications technology to increase operational efficiency and improve the quality of Government services and citizen welfare.
Author: GBA News Desk
