[Source: The Standard, by Jacob Ng’etich]
In a master plan that will be implemented in 20 years, the Ministry of Housing and the county government plan to have a planned green city to replace the current shabby ‘lunatic express’.
The plan ‘Urban Plans, Urban Designs, Economic and Implementation Study for Redevelopment of the Nairobi Central Railway Station and its Surroundings’ is currently undergoing public participation. It will be unveiled in December.
It seeks to re-engineer 430 acres piece of land from Uhuru Highway all the way to Muthurwa into a city complete with skyscraper buildings, residential flats, a cultural centre and a museum.
Last month, Kenyans were given 60 days to air their views before the plans are finalised and presented to Cabinet as a policy document for its adoption.
According to the plan, railway infrastructure will gobble a huge chunk of the project at Sh17.5 billion, followed by water supply and construction of roads and pavements that will take Sh3.9 billion and Sh2 billion respectively.
The draft plan describes the project as a “multi-modal” hub that will guarantee “seamless connection” among commuter rail, three bus rapid transits, airport limousine city bus and non-motorised transport such as bicycles.
According to Benjamin Njenga, Director of Housing, the project will be done in three phases, with the first phase including development of railway structure, arterial roads street commercial, house mapping and expansion of the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) Road to connect to Bunyala Road.
Other facilities to be included in the scheme are residential buildings, community and government buildings, open space and plazas, and powerful non-motorised and pedestrian walkways.
The government is looking at debt and equity financing, bonds, public private partnership financing as the financing models for infrastructure projects.
To address the water issue the master plan has incorporated water recycling for flushing of toilets.
The recycled water will also be used to irrigate the green areas while rain water will be collected and stored in underground tank below the proposed railway station.
[Full article: The Standard, by Jacob Ng’etich]
