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Beitbridge Town Council has come up with a Local Development Plan that seeks to transform the town into a modern medium city.
Town Engineer Maxwell Karenyi made the remarks during a recent stakeholders meeting where a District Disaster Preparedness Plan was crafted.
Council was at the moment using an LPD that was approved by Government in 1984.
He said Beitbridge town would commit at least US$122 000 for the programme between November and the first half of 2014.
Eng Karenyi said at least US$96 000 would be spend on aerial mapping while US$26 000 would be used for other logistics.
“We need to engage consultancy for the aerial mapping in order to come up with infrastructure which is in existence at the moment.
“From there we can be able to go into a consultation process with other stakeholders,” he said. “We already have our own master plan but we need to come up with a development plan to put the other works into motion.”
Beitbridge border post was granted town status in 2006 as the Government sought to develop it into a modern medium city under the National Economic Development Priority Plan (NEDPP).
Eng Karenyi said in 2003, the then Beitbridge Rural District Council tried to come up with a similar plan but failed to meet the required Government standards.
“The idea is to come up with a modest city and we believe with funds available, this will be achieved in the first half on 2014.
“The developments we have at the moment are ad-hoc and outside the 1984 development plan. It is common knowledge that the rapid development of the town is out of the previous plan.
“At the moment we have a population of 43 000 and a daily transit population of not less than 10 000. The town is the face of the nation and we need to set our development plans with that in mind,” said Eng Karenyi.
He said the 1984 LDP had resulted in congestion in the Central Business District and that the zoning was improper.
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