ZIMBABWE has announced plans to invest $23 million into the development of a new city around Mt Hampden. According to the director of spatial planning and development in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Honesty Magaya, work that includes drawing the masterplan have already begun.
Magaya said 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.
According to the 2020 Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Programme, $13 million has been reserved for developing a masterplan, while $10 million 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 Magaya.
Concept plan of the new city
The concept plan of the development will see the city sit on more than 18,000 hectares of land between Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central provinces. The plan was drawn up with the help of experts from the University of Zimbabwe.
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 an emphasis on information and communications technology to increase operational efficiency and improve the quality of government services and citizen welfare. It is also projected to decongest the capital Harare, whose population has exponentially risen from an estimated 616,000 in 1980 to the current 2.2 million