BY AISIA RWEYEMAMU
19th January 2013
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The advice follows disclosure that the Treasury has issued only Sh5 billion out of a Sh60 billion budget approved by Parliament in 2012/2013 for the project.
Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Goodluck Ole Medeye gave the report when presenting a report to the parliamentary committee on the project.
The project aims at developing Kigamboni Peninsular by establishing a satellite city to cost about Sh 11.6 billion by 2032.
Kigamboni Development Agency (KDA) is tasked to implement the development plan.
However, Salehe Pamba (CCM-Pangani), said: “If the government has no funds it is better to involve other partners under Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.”
Pamba said the government budget would be inadequate to build such a project because a lot of money is needed.
He advised the government to organise a study tour of countries that have developed similar projects to learn more from.
He cited Kenya as a country where Kigamboni Development Project developers could learn.
Additionally, the committee advised the government to settle all third part interests to facilitate KDA to have legal authority.
They said investors would not come to spend money in area with lots of land conflicts, like Kigamboni. The legislators said they were worried over what they described as government’s lack of seriousness in the completion of the Kigamboni project.
In 2008 the government initiated a project to develop a new city in Kigamboni area, Temeke District, to mitigate urbanization problems of rapidly growing Dar es Salaam and its environs.
In his report Ole Medeye said there many challenges hindering the project. “Delay of fund from the government and public concerns over the compensation are some of them,” he explained.
A commute member, Magdalena Sakaya noted that all the project’s obstacles being faced are linked to the system used during its establishment.
The government adopted a top-down approach ignoring community involvement in project that affects their lives, she said.
If the government feels it cannot implement the project, it should bring the matter to the affected communities, said the MP.
Simanjiro MP Christopher Ole Sendeka queried the method used to initiate the project, stating that it appeared the law gives more power to the government at the expense of the communities.
He said the government’s failure to allocate the needed funds was the source of ‘misunderstandings’ in Kigamboni area.
According to the committee, there were signs from the beginning that the Ministry of Finance was not ready to allocate the approved funds.
Meanwhile, minister Ole Medeye, while declaring he did not know why Finance Ministry delayed the funds, promised to make a follow-up.
Kigamboni City Development Plan, located in Temeke District in the south of the city of Dar-es-Salaam, is ambitious project.
Kigamboni is considered a geographically strategic point where land, air and ocean transportation meet.
The planned project, thus, incorporates a total of five wards: Kigamboni, Mjimwema, Vijibweni, Kibada and Somangila. The total land area for the five wards where the project is to be implemented is 6,494 hectares.
The New City of Kigamboni is expected to be a catalyst for the country‘s economic growth in general and Dar-es-Salaam in particular.
The project, being supervised by the Ministry of Lands, seeks to develop the current cited wards into a thriving new city that supports a population of 500,000 residents, various commercial, educational, social and other important economic interests.
It is also meant to facilitate development of competitive urban services of oriental nature as a way to spur economic growth.
It is also intended to provide the public with better accessible services to beaches and promoting tourism and its associated benefits as well as being a stimulus for investment opportunities.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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