Rwanda: Imminent Kigali city master plan to reveal development roadmap for 30 years

Devdiscourse notified you a few days back that Rwanda is set to start working on the development of a model green city in the country's capital, Kigali. The Deputy Team Leader of the Green City Pilot project, Eudes Kayumba said that the relevant studies would be completed by December this year. Then the development will start in January next year.

However, the capital city of Rwanda, Kigali is going to have a new master plan, which is likely to be launched by August this year. The Kigali Master Plan will lay out the city’s development roadmap for the next 30 years.

A final consultation on the draft new master plan that is aligned with the country’s Vision 2050 was presented to stakeholders at the City of Kigali. The city has already started a process to review and update the current master plan following widespread concerns by city dwellers on multiple issues, mainly shortage of low cost housing, open spaces for recreational parks, ease of owning a home and access to public facilities, among other aspects which were inadequately catered for, as reported by The New Times.

The people were provided enough time to provide their inputs in the proposed new master plan, according to the Director of Kigali Urban Planning, Fred Mugisha. He said that this will encourage ownership during its implementation.

“We value people’s recommendations because the master plan is theirs to implement. Consultations were conducted, from the beneficiaries [community] to decision-makers, and we are now presenting their inputs to developers,” Mugisha added.

It is revealed that the proposed plan will encourage the utilization of public transport by minimum 70 percent due to limited parking space for private vehicles. It envisages that 10 percent of the city dwellers will use bicycles.

“The master plan will not allow big parking space for private cars in some buildings that will come up in the future. Instead, people will leave their cars at designated parking spaces, with an option to use public transport,” Mugisha opined, The New Times noted.

Also Read: Rwanda becomes member of OECD Development Centre, Minister shares plan at ongoing Forum