Fri, 12 May 2017 11:46:43 +0000
BY CHINTU MALAMBO
MY ministry will soon submit a proposal to Cabinet to make Ngabwe in Central Province the new capital city of Zambia, Minister of National Planning Lucky Mulusa has said.
Mr Mulusa said that Lusaka was not well planned to qualify as the capital city because it was congested and a new city would help offload the population of Lusaka.
He said that the Ministry of National Planning was going to present to Cabinet a request to go ahead and do feasibility studies of the new capital city.
Mr Mulusa said that his ministry had devised a plan to come up with a new capital city that would be able to compete with other African cities.
Mr Mulusa charged that Lusaka would be congested in 10 years’ time and it will no longer be suitable to be called the capital city of Zambia.
He said that there was need to plan a new capital city based on the modern principles of sustainable development.
“When you look at Lusaka in the next 10 years, the city will not be able to sustain us. The rate at which commerce and industry and official activities are growing cannot be met with Lusaka’s ability to grow its capacity.
‘‘Human settlement on its own is a problem and that is why my ministry is proposing that we start up a completely new capital city that will be planned on the modern principles of sustainable development,” he said.
Mr Mulusa said that Ngabwe, west of Kabwe, was an ideal location for the capital city of Zambia because it was more central than Lusaka and it was easier to start building a city from scratch.
He said that Ngabwe had vast land and was located between Ndola and Lusaka where the two largest airports are being constructed, making it the ideal place for a capital city.
Mr Mulusa charged that the response from the general public and other stakeholders was positive with the idea of relocating the capital city to Ngabwe.
