The Bulawayo City Council (BCC), Friday, commissioned 117 serviced housing stands in Pumula suburb as it strives to reduce the housing backlog in the city.
The stands were serviced by the local authority under the presale scheme.
“The 117 stands have been serviced with water, sewer, roads and public lighting. In the servicing, we faced a number of challenges such as rocky ground requiring a lot of blasting and rock Movement from the site so that the property owners are able to construct their properties without any challenges,” said Town Clerk Christopher Dube.
“We faced challenges in the availability of material from the suppliers with most not being readily available and this is despite procuring materials in foreign currency. We also had numerous plant breakdowns delaying project completion.”
Dube said the news machinery which council acquired in June assisted in fast-tracking the project.
They acquired a grader, front-end loader, excavator and nine vehicles for US$1 120 351.64.
“We are able today to see the fruits of that investment towards housing delivery and maintenance. In that regard, I would like to urge the people of Bulawayo to partner with us through timely payment of bills so that we are able to purchase the necessary equipment for service delivery,” he said.
The commissioning of the housing stands also coincided with the unveiling of a new plant, machinery and vehicle fleet to improve service delivery in the city.
The new fleet includes a grader, two refuse compactors and NP200 trucks.
“I am glad that we are also commissioning refuse compactors which are key in the collection of waste and keeping the City of Bulawayo clean. The city requires a total of 26 refuse compactors at a time to adequately cover all suburbs and business areas. At the moment we have 12 functional compactors which include these 2 new compactors. The other ten while still in their operational life span are on and off due to frequent breakdowns,” he said.
