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Khartoum State Re-structuring masterplan: a strengthening of social bonds and promotion of modern day life in the capital state
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Jan 22, 2010 - 8:02:22 AM
Khartoum State Re-structuring masterplan: a strengthening of social bonds and promotion of modern day life in the capital state
A report written by Amal Abdul Hameed
Translated by Mohamed Osman Adam
Khartoum, Jan. 22 (SUNA)- Economic growth coupled with urban developments that cover numerous arenas in Khartoum state, the national capital that attract people for livelihood and stability, need a reconsideration of the physical planning of the state
Urban development has resulted in the construction of many a road and the erection of many a bridge, attracting huge human influx which ultimately affects the life style of the communities of Khartoum, a melting pot for the various ethnic groups and people from different parts of the country. It also becomes a place that embraces within its womb varied human groups whose cultures and customs blend, based on interaction and family approach
The population counts that were conducted in 1973, 1983 and 1993 have shown that the net population migration to the state has been 27%, 39% and 42% respectively, out of the total internal population migration. The same have shown that the average population grown at the national level stands at 3.8% yearly, and that Khartoum state received a daily influx of a thousand migrants every day, a huge pressure on the available resources of the national capital Khartoum
This pressure has yielded some negative phenomenon, including shanty towns, camps for internally displaced persons (IDP) and war affected persons that littered the peripheries of the capital-city state of Khartoum. The burden of handling this situation is placed upon the shoulders of Khartoum state Government. This one has put forwards a number of physical development plans, to be carried out through urban planning and development in the state. This was considered the first strategy step toward a strategy of urban development and upgrading modern life in Khartoum
Professor Saif Eddin Salih, Head of the Advisory Board for Khartoum's Master plan, argued that one of the most important aims of the plan is to adopt circular roads that would be able to distribute traffic and solve the problem of crosses, crossroads and bottlenecks and at the same time shake up the huge land plots holdings, by cutting roads through and by evacuation of the city centre from all activities of urban attraction
This he says would be carried out by distribution of the services provided all over the capital and breaking the pattern of focusing them in the centre of the capital. He says the projects will thus contribute in upgrading tourism, recreation areas and public parks as means to boost and strengthen social bonds
The project is also aimed to open the Nile corniche area before the general public. It also seeks to create liaison between urban and rural area in such a way as to make one complete and complement the other and at the same time fuse the poor peripheral areas within the urban fibers of the town-state Khartoum
But to control the physical density and to handle the pockets of t he illegal dwellings, professor Saif Eddin Salih argued the project seeks to implement a flexible housing policy for each of the layers of the community in a way that it would respond to the needs of poor families and at the same time maintain and protect the environment though sustaining of green covers and coming up with advanced system for collecting household garbage and other hazardous medical waste, while in a third leg expanding option of public transport. This should range from tramways and river transport. This will in the end lead to upgrading the cultural and social life activities in Khartoum State
As to when such a project would be seeing the daylight, the Khartoum State minister for Physical Planning and Development, engineer Abdul Wahab Osman, predicts that the projects needs a lofty sum 9 billion US dollars for the erection of 1200 (twelve thousand) projects
He said out of this sum 2.5 billion dollars will cover the first phase that extend for five years. But he cautions that the project needs brining together both state and Federal might that will comprise economic backing, capacity building and rehabilitation and education of all relevant concerned bodies and elements in the state about the projects and at the same time involving the private sector in the plan and its implementation
To couple words with deed the governor of Khartoum State, Dr Abdul Rrahaman Al Khidir, has issued a decree on formation of a high powered committee to control the implementation of the project while at the same time delegating legal experts in the Khartoum State Legislature, being the first controller of the projects as it is ratified legislations that will contribute and coordinate the work of he concerned bodies and by the ratification of the Khartoum legislature
The launching of the project, after the ratification by the Khartoum State legislature, observers could safely say that this is a project that satisfy the aspirations of the citizens in Khartoum sate and would endeavor to provide a descent and stable life for the citizens and make them active elements within their community
MA/MA
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