Heritage City: Construction starts in August this year

This Thursday, the Private Notice Question of the leader of the opposition, Paul Bérenger was targeted on the Heritage City project.

In his reply, the Minister of Financial Services Roshi Bhadain said that the first part of the project will necessitate funding of Rs 30 billion. To this end, he has negotiated a syndicated loan with four banks topped-up with cumulative redeemable shares of 292 million USD with India and Saudi Arabia. He added that the start of the project in August next will help the construction industry and that this will boost our economic growth with 0.8% in 2017; 0.9% in 2018, 0.4% in 2019 and 0.3% in 2020. Minister Bhadain underlined that the country acquired heavy debts over the past ten years. In his supplementary questions, Paul Bérenger sought information on the chosen consultant for a Master Plan, feasibility study and EIA permit as well as Stree Consulting for the design and funding proposals. “This government wants to create an integral development with the concept of work, live and play for the next five years, starting in 2016. Heritage City includes the building of our Parliament with an e-government infrastructure, an international convention centre and luxury apartments. Tenders were launched on 2 October 2015 with eleven proposals coming from abroad. This is a government to government agreement with a funding mode including a minimum participation,” said Minister Bhadain.