Former Chief of Army Staff and one-time Minister of Defense, Gen Theophilus Y. Danjuma (rtd), today commissioned the multi-billion Naira Kwankwasiyya city, one of the three mega cities established by the administration of Gov. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso.
The three cities, namely Kwankwasiyya, Amana and Bandirawo, estimated to gulp the sum of nearly N30 billion, were initiated to counter the challenges of shortage of housing, overcrowding, overstretching of public infrastructure and related problems, caused by rapid urban growth of Kano metropolis.
Realizing these problems and their attendant consequences, the state government, in 2012, conceptualized what it termed “the Kano Mega City project” which entailed constructing the new capital intensive cities among other infrastructure, established the Kano Geographic Information Systems, KANGIS, and banned the demarcation and sales of illegal sub-divisions of plots popularly known as Awon Igiya.
Gov. Kwankwaso explained that the first phase of the Kwankwasiyya Housing project covers 205 hectares with 698, consisting 5 and 4 bedroom duplexes as well as 3 bedroom bungalows.
“Government resources were solely used to build these houses and we have sold some while others are being sold to Kano citizens and other Nigerians”, the governor stated.
He said a Chinese company has acquired 250 houses and 41 hectares of land at Amana city, at the cost of about N5 billion, payble within three months, adding that from all indications, all the houses at the three new cities would be sold by May, 2015.
Governor Kwankwaso, therefore, assured that the proceeds generated from the sale of the houses would be channeled to the provision of infrstucture in other layouts like Kuyan Ta’inna, a suburb of Kano city, in the last few months of his administration.
In his speech, Gen. T. Y. Danjuma, who expressed happiness over the development, acknowledged the renewed zeal and commitment demonstrated by the Kwankwaso administration to redefine Kano, pointing out that in the past 36 months, the government has changed the face and character of Kano by embarking upon a number of defining public work programmes.
The retired Army Chief who described the Kwankwasiyya city as a befitting legacy noted that the quality of infrastructure, including the road networks and bridges attest to the priority attached by the state government to the close supervision that resulted in high standard of delivery.
Halilu Ibrahim Dantiye, fnge, mni
Director of Press and Public Relations
to the Executive Governor of Kano state,
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