New highway towns on the way
New towns are being planned along major road and rail corridors to spread development from major metropolitan areas, while haphazard and illegal urban centres will be cleaned up.
Addressing a stakeholders seminar organised by Zimbabwe Builders and Contractors Association in Harare on Friday, National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the proposed development corridors were critical to President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030 of attaining an upper-middle income economy.
Minister Garwe spoke of Melfort on the Harare-Mutare main highway and Figtree which is 40km from Bulawayo.
For both, there are developers eager to start and they have been told to come up with a master plan.
Minister Garwe said every road that leads either from Harare or Bulawayo must have a development corridor, but this development must be done in a modern and sustainable way.
“Melfort has so much potential to become a city, but before that it must be a town,” he said.
“Right now we have got some investors that are on the ground to develop the master plan for Melfort, again these are some of the opportunities. These are investors who want to develop Melfort, so you guys gear up yourselves for that development.
“We have got Figtree is 40km from Bulawayo and can be developed to become a dormitory town of Bulawayo.”
Domboshava, in Goromonzi West, will be included in the ongoing process to sort out large unplanned development.
Minister Garwe said Domboshava had developed into a huge, unplanned settlement because of unscrupulous village heads who were parcelling out land.
“It has to be regularised,” he said.
In terms of housing at mines that were abandoned when ore bodies ran out or when production costs exceeded the price of minerals such as Kamativi in Matabeleland North and Mhangura in Mashonaland West, Minister Garwe said they will be addressed.
“Those areas qualify to be upgraded to be proper settlements to make sure that we provide proper social amenities which are roads, water, and sewer,” he said.
“We need also to re-ignite economic activities in those areas.”-herald.cl.zw
