Durban will soon be home to over eight kilometres of pristine promenade space along the city’s main beaches.
The extension project from Ushaka Marine World towards the Durban Ski Boat Club is nearing completion and is expected to be open to welcome festive season holidaymakers.
eThekwini Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda says work is expected to begin early next year on the development of a mall, a five-star hotel and a residential property.
“Out of this 380 million investment on infrastructure and bulk infrastructure that we have put here we have also allocated about 120 million to the emerging companies so they can also partake in the economy of the city. We will be having a 39 storey building which will be a hotel with more than 600 beds, also a residential accommodation as well as the shopping complex. So we intend in resuscitating the economic activities along the beach here.”
Meanwhile, Kaunda also visited the CBD and identified challenges such as blocked storm water drainage systems, potholes, poor sanitation at taxi ranks and dilapidated buildings.
He says the high number of informal traders and the manner in which they are trading has also been highlighted.
“We have allocated about 5 thousand tables for informal traders but there are more than 10 thousand traders who are trading informally who are not legit. It becomes our responsibility as a city to identify other areas where we’ll relocate some of this because we don’t want to chase people away, so we assist their families to have source of income. Where all passages are blocked you can’t even walk freely around the CBD so we have spoken to them and the plans are there to try and relocate them.”
