The prime resort town of Kariba is inching towards exponential growth as evidenced by the huge demand for commercial and industrial stands in what is expected to spawn a property boom in the predominantly wildlife settlement.
Speaking during Kariba Municipality’s strategic planning workshop Wednesday, acting town clerk Godfrey Magijani said the council was geared towards infrastructural development in the town to match fast-transforming Victoria Falls.
In 1999 Victoria Falls and Kariba were accorded municipality status and at the end of last year, the former was granted city status and now has an international airport and a foreign stock exchange market.
Magijani said although Kariba was lagging behind in terms of luring new investments in property development over the years, there is now increased demand for prime land for commercial and industrial purposes in the town.
A reputable financial institution was allocated swathes of land for the proposed new central business district (CBD) in order to spearhead the development of modern state-of-the-art infrastructure that would transform the image of Kariba, the acting town clerk said.
The new envisaged project will also witness the construction of the local authority’s composite civic centre.
“There is land that we set aside for the development of a CBD. That land was offered to CBZ (Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe) with the intention that they service the land and build some commercial shops, a mall of some sort, and give other interested developers and entities stands to build on,” said Magijani.
“That is also where we are supposed to have our civic centre as council. We are supposed to have one of the big stands in that CBD as our civic centre. We currently don’t have a civic centre, but what we have are four old flats,” the town clerk whose substantive post is the housing and community services director, said.
“In terms of demand for commercial stands in Kariba, it continues to grow and we would want to make sure everyone who wants to do business has somewhere to operate from.”
Magijani said servicing was partially complete in the Batonga area while work would soon commence in Jumbo which was on the priority list of projects to be completed between 2022 and 2023.
The council is also grappling with a shortage of land for horizontal expansion due to its nestled position in the midst of a national wildlife reserve and envisions the development of high-rise properties in the resort town that hosts the iconic Kariba Dam.