Project to resume as council, developer resolve dispute

West.
Augur Investment chairman Mr Ken Sharpe said his company was willing to invest US$10 billion into the local economy.
“We need the support of all stakeholders to make this vision a reality,” he said.
Dualisation of the road is now expected to resume in two weeks. There is, however, fear the rains would slow down construction.
Both parties confirmed resolving the sticky issues. Dualisation of the road is tied to the construction of the mall.
Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said council was in the process of paying outstanding debts.
“We are paying them. We pay for each phase,” he said.
Dr Mahachi said the relocation of water pipes was also delaying resumption of the project.
“We are trying to take care of our water mains. We want to ensure that when dualisation resumes the mains would be out of our way,” he said.
Mr Sharpe confirmed work starts in mid November following successful discussions with city authorities.
“We have made major progress in resolving the impasse with EMA and also the City of Harare who are in the process of completing the outstanding payment which will see us back on the road by mid November,” he said.
Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said there was need to strike a “happy balance” between environmental concerns and economic development.
He was speaking in particular reference to the Mall of Zimbabwe.
“The proposed project will be a tremendous fillip to our fledging economy. It will among other things go a long way towards decongesting the existing shopping centres especially Sam Levy’s Village where tenants pay unsustainably high rentals,” he said.
He said the city approved the project “with a caveat that an environmental impact assessment survey should be undertaken”.
The EMA certificate was issued on October 23 and expires on the same date in October 2014.
This means construction has to be done within the specified period.
If no construction work is done within the period a new environmental impact assessment would be required.