Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya , Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE Rural District Council (BBRDC) is working on a raft of measures aimed at urbanising Lutumba Growth Point which is located some 20km north of the border town along the Beitbridge Masvingo Highway.
The rural district council believes the growth point has great potential to develop into a town due to its location along the major highway in Zimbabwe and proximity to Beitbridge Border Post.
The council’s chief executive officer, Mr Peter Moyo, yesterday said they were servicing residential stands to ease accommodation challenges in Beitbridge town.
The RDC is also developing commercial stands for industrial development.
Mr Moyo said so far, they had serviced the area with roads, water and a standard dumpsite which has since been certified by the Environmental Management Agency (Ema).
“The first batch of 400 stands were serviced between 2015 and 2019, and these have been allocated to the beneficiaries, while 19 commercial stands have also been availed for industrial development purposes.
We don’t want the area to only expand in terms of housing development, but we should make sure that there is a steady growth in terms of commercial activities as well,” he said.
“So far, we have drilled four boreholes to service nearly 400 housing stands and several business properties.”
Mr Moyo said the water reticulation programme was progressing and that currently, the area was relying on one mechanised borehole.
Three more boreholes will be connected as properties in the area increase.
Mr Moyo said the housing waiting list for housing and commercial stands had grown to above 2 000.
“The cost of servicing residential stands is relatively cheap since most properties will be using septic tanks and water reticulated from the four boreholes.
We have also put in place a standard dumpsite west of the business centre as part of our development initiative to upgrade the growth point into a modern peri-urban centre,” he added.
The allocation of the stands is being done in line with the Government’s housing for all scheme.
Mr Moyo said they were hopeful the growth point will be a hive of activity in a few years to come based on the ongoing infrastructure development in the area.
He said the growth point has great potential to develop into a town due to its location along the major highway in Zimbabwe and proximity to Beitbridge Border Post.
The local authority has already built offices in the area, while other development agents are working on constructing more schools and health care facilities and a service station in the same area. — @tupeyo
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