Extending Lautoka City boundary in plan stage
Council executive says more applications of new buildings received.
Talks between the Government and local authorities in Lautoka to extend the Lautoka City boundary for new development projects are ongoing. Lautoka City Council chief executive officer Jone Nakauvadra said these discussions were being made with the council and the Ministry of Local Government.
“Talks for this started last year, but right now we are at the planning stages,” Mr Nakauvadra said. “There will be three of four phases to this project for the groundwork because it is not an easy job. We are also working with the TLTB’s lands department, the Fiji Roads Authority, EFL and other service providers.”
Mr Nakauvadra said they had received a significant number of applications for new buildings in the city for subdivisions and other developments, but they were being processed as they came. He confirmed that the boundary extension would take place from a marked area outside the city. “Right now the boundary is only up to Natabua from the Queens
road side and towards the Ba side it extends to Palas motors. But we are only extending towards Natabua, which is phase one then the rest of the phases will be towards Lovu then Wairebetia junction,” he said.
As for residents living in the Natabua area Mr Nakauvadra said: “No one will be relocated. We will involve zoning to determine residential, commercial or industrial lands. It will all depend on land use and that’s why we are working with the department of town and country planning because this is a very big project.
He said the development project was needed to boost the economic growth of Lautoka City.
“We need to do this because we have to review our scheme plan, which is basically the areas of the city boundary. And this will determine how the development will take place in the industrial, commercial and housing areas. Once we do that then we can look at bigger projects,” he said. Natabua resident Ashok Kumar welcomes the project.
He said: “I think this will provide more employment opportunities when these buildings do go up around our area, but the only issue that they will probably need to fix is the stench from the open sewage leak. It might be a problem for those companies that want to have buildings here.”