Gwanda State University master-plan nears completion
A TECHNICAL team appointed to oversee the construction of Gwanda State University (GWASU) has started working on a master plan to pave way for civil works, an official has said.
A senior director at the university Dr Sikhulumani Mangena said the plan was at the final drafting stage.
Dr Mangena was speaking on the side-lines of a stakeholders’ consultative meeting held in Gwanda last week.
He said civil works will begin before June, adding that they were looking to implement the project on a private public partnership initiative.
“We are currently taking the university master plan to the stakeholders for their input. We want the stake holders to contribute to this master plan so that there is a sense of ownership among key stakeholders here,” said Dr Mangena.
“After this, we will start construction at our main campus in about three months from now. We are looking at partnering with the private sector and we have confidence in the Private, Public Partnerships (PPPs)”.
He said they were looking at spending $10 million in the first phase of the project.
According to Dr Mangena, they have since been allocated 87 hectares to build the university in Gwanda by the local authority.
He said they had requested for more land to carry all their intended facilities which comes with a standard university.
“We want more land for the construction of residency for staff and students. In addition we want another place designated specifically for students’ research and implementing income generating projects,”said Dr Mangena. He said they were looking at having two intakes per year.
Dr Mangena said as of now they have 146 students using learning facilities at Epoch Mine in Insiza. He said they would raise the figure to 800 upon completion of the main campus in Gwanda town.The Gwanda university project initiative was proposed in 2007 and enrolled its first students in 2016. Construction of the main campus has been moving at a snail’s space due to an acute shortage of resource.