Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI-The wait is finally over for Melbourne Park beneficiaries after town council gave them green light to start construction in the partially serviced medium density suburb.
The development comes after three years of waiting for allocation as the local authority was trying to service the stands before officially handing them over to owners in order to avoid the Makondo saga, where residents were allowed to construct houses on un-serviced stands.
Melbourne Park medium density residential project, which came as a partial relief to the ever growing housing waiting list in the slowly growing sugarcane town were allocated to beneficiaries in 2019 at the cost of $25.00 per square meter and took almost three years to complete servicing as the companies that were tendered to develop roads, drainage lines, sewer and water reticulation system took ages to complete as the funds were hit by inflation.
Currently, CTC is selling some remaining stands at Melbourne Park in order to complete servicing some parts of the project, with sewer system being the major challenge left.
The local authority has given green light to the beneficiaries to start submitting their house plans for approval in order to begin construction, which will be subdivided into three sections, with section A, which is at 90percent in terms of servicing, being the first to construct while the local authority completes servicing sections B and C.
In an interview, CTC acting council chairperson Ropafadzo Makumire said beneficiaries have been given green light to start submitting their plans for approval at the local authority with section A being cleared to begin construction while the local authority completes works in sections B and C.
“Beneficiaries have been given the green light to begin construction with section A being cleared to start construction while sections B and C will commence once servicing has been completed. We had set a deadline 31 July but seems people will be moving to their sites earlier as works are almost complete for A, then to B and C,” said Makumire.
Gerry Chigavakava chairperson of Melbourne Park construction committee said the latest development is the best thing to embrace following three years of stalemate with the local authority.
“In the interest of progress, given that we are coming from the background where we had a three year stalemate with CTC, this latest development is the best thing that we should embrace at this time. Going forward it helps us to break even, we know now that people should start presenting their developmental plans for approval.
“This gives us hope as Section A is starting doing works on the 20th of July. It’s a factor that gives hope. We know that there is now development from the bonafide beneficiaries,” said Chigavakava.
