By Jimoh Saviour Alabi
The Edo State government has disclosed that its proposed Coral City would accommodate not less than 50,000 residents when completed.
Edo State Commissioner for Physical Planning, Housing, Urban and Regional Development, Isoken Omo, who on Wednesday addressed a joint press conference with her counterpart in the Ministry of Communication and Orientation, Chris Osa Nehikhare, stated that the reason for the new city, which she said started September 2022, was to reduce the pressure on the Benin City Centre.
“We have done the design, and we have 1,300 plots available for different land uses: residential, commercial, multi-purpose, religious, leisure, schools, markets, health centres, everything you need for a city to thrive, and it is coming with full infrastructure like roads, drainages, power, telecommunication, and others.
“We intend to house 50,000 people when it is fully completed. We have broken the project into four phases so that within the tenure of the current administration, we will do the first phase with the expectation that the subsequent governments will continue the project. We opened for subscription with 467 plots to jump-start the project,” Omo disclosed.
To achieve that, she added that a New Town Development Authority had been set up to oversee the comprehensive development of the project and appealed to Edo residents to begin to apply for plot allocation in the new city, assuring that the land acquired would come with title documents.
She said that the project would be in four phases, adding that after the initial subscription, subscribers would also be allowed to do staggered and instalment basis.
Also speaking at the press conference, Nehikhare reiterated the state government’s commitment to prioritising the people’s welfare.
Nehikhare disclosed that since the state government flagged off its free bus rides penultimate week, the feedback from the people had been most encouraging as commuters who had been using the free buses had been able to save their daily transportation fares.
“We are pleased by the appreciation we have received from Edo people since the programme commenced.”
Nehikhare stated that the State Government is still collating data of the poorest of the poor in the State to populate its social register, which is also being revalidated to ensure that no one within the designated bracket is left out of it.He added that the distribution will be devoid of politics as it will go directly to those captured during the data collection exercise.
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