During the meeting with India’s High Commissioner to Zambia, Mr Ashok Kumar, and a delegation of investors from that country, this morning, we acknowledged India’s US$250 million funding towards the 93km long Lusaka Traffic Decongestion Project.
We are also inviting potential investors to help upgrade the unplanned settlements in prime areas of the central business district. India has massive programmes on slum upgrading that the New Dawn administration wants to learn from and implement.
We further reminded the visiting delegation that the Indian government had offered to help Zambia with the construction of a state-of-the-art conference facility along Airport Road in Lusaka, which was to be named Mahatma Ghandi Convention Centre.
Government submitted the proposed specifications and tentative estimated cost for the construction of the convention centre in 2018, as requested by the Indian government.
In this regard, the Indian government identified National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) India Limited as the project management consultant to undertake supervision of planning, designing and construction of the Mahatma Ghandi Convention Centre.
However, the implementation of this project has not commenced to date.
The Indian delegation comprised Mr Ashok Kumar, High Commissioner, Mr Sudipta Roy, Head of Chancery, Mr Rajesh Kumar, CEO and Country manager RITES Botswana, and Mr Alok Kumar, General Manager RITES India.