10 November 2008
Maputo — The mayor of Maputo, Eneas Comiche, on Monday inaugurated a new car park for the Maputo Central Market, part of the City Council's strategy to revive the historic "Baixa" (downtown) part of the city, near the port.
The new car park, built in only three months, cost 650,000 US dollars, and has space for 202 cars. The car park will cost users 20 meticais (less than one US dollar) for the first three hours, and 10 meticais for each additional hour. The great advantage to using the car park, rather than looking for a space on the pavements, is that the car park is supposed to be secure, so that motorists will not return to find that their car has been broken into, or that wing mirrors or side lights have been stolen.
The private consortium Intermesch that built the car park will operate it for the first 15 years of its life, and will pay the City Council a monthly fee of 75,000 meticais (about 3,100 US dollars).
"The project to upgrade the baixa and turn it into a genuine commercial pole has taken noteworthy steps forward", said Comiche. These included major repairs to the drainage system, ensuring that today the baixa does not flood every time it rains.
Roads and pavements have been repaired, new signposts are in place, and the entire area has begun to shake off the air of seedy decay that had settled on it before Comiche was elected mayor in 2003.
Also on Monday, Comiche reinaugurated the "Teachers' Garden", a municipal garden in front of the country's largest secondary school, and overlooking the Bay of Maputo. The garden contains a children's playground, views over the bay, public toilets, and lighting to ensure that it will not be dangerous at night. Work is still continuing on shops in the garden.
The nearby Cardoso Hotel invested 1.4 million dollars in rehabilitating the garden, and doubtless it expects to recover its money from the rent paid by shops. The hotel will run the garden and pay the City Council a fee of 40,000 meticais a month.
These two inaugurations, and the laying of the first stone for construction of a permanent handicrafts fair in the city centre, were part of the commemorations of the 121st anniversary of the elevation of Maputo to the status of a city.
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