Harare mulls urban renewal

23 Nov, 2018 - 00:11 0 Views
Harare mulls urban renewal Harare’s CBD has faced a number of challenges in terms of urban decay from ill-maintained buildings, rampant littering to deteriorating road curbings and islands

eBusiness Weekly

Kudakwashe Mhundwa
Urban renewal is defined as a process of land redevelopment in cities, particularly in areas which are experiencing urban decay.

The phenomena is associated with the clearing out of shattered areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, among other processes.

If successfully carried out urban renewal will result in urban sprawl and less congestion when city infrastructure begins to include free-ways and express-ways.

In cities around the world, urban renewal is transforming underutilised and degraded areas into spaces and built environments that meet contemporary living, working or cultural needs. Globally, world renowned cities like Melbourne (Australia), Chicago (United States of America), Buenos Aires (capital city of Argentina) among others have carried out the process of urban renewal.

Sadly, in recent years Harare’s Central Business District has faced quite a number of challenges in terms of urban decay from ill-maintained buildings, rampant littering to deteriorating road curbings and islands as well as slums among other ills that bedevil the city.

Gladly, the city of Harare is in the process of coming up with solutions to Harare’s problem of urban decay.

City of Harare Mayor Herbert Gomba told the BusinessWeekly that it was in the process of coming up with a plan to revitalise inner-parts of the city, in what is arguably a plan for urban renewal.

As part of the efforts the city has laid out an initial budget of $5 million which will address issues of road resealing, curbings among other pressing issues.

“From our part as council we are looking at ploughing around $5 million but it is subject to changes because we are beginning to quantify it.

“The funds will be rolled out next year and beginning of next year you should see us embarking on so many of these projects. Immediate areas of concerns are the road curbings, road reseal and construction, beautification of road islands we want to make it difficult for kombis to use them as parking slots,” said Gomba.

He has also highlighted that the city has begun writing to major corporates operating from the CBD to take up renewal works on some city roads, which is similar to what mobile telecommunications giant Econet Wireless has done with First Street in Harare.

“We have written to so many companies asking them to adopt different streets of the CBD and positive feedback has been received from the different companies. So far we have written to City Park asking them to adopt Julius Nyerere Way, we are writing to NetOne for them to adopt 4th street, we have written to ZTA asking them to adopt Samora Machel.”

Gomba said the city has also since written to property owners in the CBD to spruce up their buildings.

This comes as Kuva City Air, an aerial state-of-the-art cable car, is expected to transform commuting in Harare by tackling traffic congestion, especially in and around the CBD.

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