By James Mwale
Lilongwe, August 29, Mana: Lilongwe City Council (LLC) has embarked on a campaign designed to change the look of the City’s old town.
Under the campaign dubbed “red star project”, all buildings that do not live up to the council’s prescribed standards will have to be either demolished, or changed in paint colour according to the Council’s Director of Planning and Development (DPD), Hilary Kamela.
“This project is targeting all buildings in Lilongwe old town, specifically Malangalanga and Bwalo la Njobvu. The targeted areas will undergo development restructuring, including dual carriage of the main road so it is only standard procedure that the buildings surrounding the area should level up to the standards,” he explained.
Kamela added that the campaign which would involve both privately owned and government buildings would spare Lilongwe town hall saying it was a listed monumental building which only requires renovation despite its dilapidated state.
The City’s Mayor, Richard Banda said much as the building owners would have a task of either renovating or demolishing their structures, the council would have a task of relocating street vendors to established market places.
“This is a serious exercise. We are about to construct new roads and new sewer drainage systems, and we cannot have such infrastructure development projects with dilapidated buildings,” he said, adding that the building owners have a six months deadline to comply with the call.
