Clarification on Kigali City upgrading

Editor, I seek to clarify the misrepresented facts in the article “50 percent of Kigali city to be upgraded in 50 years” in The Sunday New Times of 30th August 2009. Contrary to the journalist’s reporting, the city will not only be upgrading 50% of the City over the next 50 years; these percentages were applied to highlight the limited access to developable land and the global planning period in our Master Plan. Kigali City covers an area of 732km2 and of this 50% is developable and the remaining 50% due to steep slopes, wetlands, and water bodies may only be used for environmentally suitable activities such as landscaping, select agricultural activities as guided by our environmental law. Furthermore of the total area cover of 732km2, 70% of this is unplanned development, which is the target of our upgrading schemes through two main avenues-Slums upgrading which is the introduction of the lacking infrastructure and complete redevelopment. Our vision for the future development of our City is drawn from our Conceptual Master Plan which provides us the global guidelines to ensure a sustainable development over the next 50 years. From this we draw our detailed physical plans which are structured to be implemented in concurrent and consequential phases of 5-10 years hence the strategically selected zones that constitute the first phase of the implementation-Central Business District (Muhima, Nyarugenge, Kimicanga), Kimihurura Gateway, Rebero, Akumunigo, Kinyinya and Masaka. We emphasize that the goal of the City as per our Master Plan is to have a fully redeveloped city that continues to regenerate itself in accordance with the stipulated zoning and urban design guidelines to ensure a sustainable city. This, therefore, includes upgrading all of the 70% of unplanned developed areas by reclaiming environmentally protected zones that have been encroached-forests, wetlands and water bodies, while guiding all future development along the designated developable areas. Bruno RangiraKigali City Council

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Clarification on Kigali City upgrading