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Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter

Masvingo City Council has applied to central government for additional land to increase its industrial, commercial and residential settlements as part of its quest to expand the city.

This is part of Government’s vision to avail affordable housing units to its citizenry in collaboration with the private sector as enshrined in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS-1).

With the current infrastructure, Masvingo City Council can avail 5 000 residential stands and the local authority is already working to avail the housing units within the next five years.

Acting town clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa confirmed the city’s application for more land.

“Within the next five years, we are planning to avail not less than 5 000 housing units,” he said.

“That is the plan. We have also applied to the central Government for additional land for expansion purposes of the city in the peri-urban farms mainly for industrial, commercial and also residential purposes.”

Masvingo city mayor Collen Maboke said their activities will be aligned to NDS1 and they are focusing on infrastructure development.

He said they were targeting road rehabilitation, sewer reticulation system, as well as improved serviced delivery.

For road rehabilitation, Mr Maboke said they received $132 million from central government and this amount is not part of the usual Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) funds.