Maravi

(TIMES) 60 p.c. land in Ndola idle

60 p.c. land in Ndola idle
By Times Reporter

ABOUT 60 per cent of land in Ndola has been lying idle after the city council allocated it to individuals and organisations.

Town Clerk, Charity Mpande (left) said in an interview yesterday that a preliminary land audit conducted by the local authority showed that there was an ‘‘artificial’’ shortage of land because much of it was being held by people and individuals who had not undertaken any development.

Ms Mpande said the council would repossess the land which had not been developed 18 months after allocation.

The repossession exercise would be done after concluding the necessary legal processes so that it could be re-allocated to other developers.

“After a preliminary audit, we discovered that on paper, there is a shortage of land in Ndola.

‘‘However, on the ground it was discovered that about 60 per cent of the land which was allocated to some people was still lying idle for various reasons.

‘‘We did advertise in the newspapers last month that we shall be repossessing land which has not been developed,” she said.

The council was disappointed that Mitengo area, which was initially called Mufulira Round-about land development area, had not been developed from 2001 when the local authority initiated the project.

Ms Mpande said, however, that part of the land in Ndola was protected forestry land consisting of natural and exotic vegetation, which could not be developed into residential and commercial areas.

“There is still some land which has not been allocated south of the city. We’ve identified land for development. For instance in Mushili, land has been identified for development,” she said.

She said the council had spent K2 billion on grading roads in Mitengo area where the network had been gravelled and levelled with laterite.

“We sourced money within the council to do the roads in Mitengo. We graded the roads, levelled them and we did them professionally.

‘‘This is to enable people to access their plots and eventually develop the area,” she said.

Labels: CHARITY MPANDE, LAND, NDOLA

posted by MrK @ 5:21 PM