The federal government has allocated more than four billion birr to an initiative that would see the renovation or construction of several palaces, popular tourist attractions, and government buildings in the coming fiscal year.
No less than 45 million birr has been earmarked for the construction and renovation of a palace guest house in Bahir Dar, while close to 42 million birr has been allocated to the renovation and construction of a palace in Mekele.
A massive 1.6 billion birr in capital budget has been set aside for development works and landscape design for the Koka and Melkassa palaces, with each project taking half of the total. An additional 100 million birr has been allocated for the renovation of the Jimma Abba Jifar palace, and 216 million birr for the reconstruction and maintenance of Gondar's Fasiledes Castle.
A 1.3 billion birr budget has been earmarked for the redevelopment, maintenance, redesign studies, heritage maintenance, and construction of artifact warehouses for the national palace. It is in addition to half a billion birr previously allocated to similar works.
Next year will also see a 200 million birr tourist development project for the Sof Omar caves, another 250 million birr spent on the protection and development of Awash Park, and 31 million birr allocated to construction works at Wondo Genet Resort.
- Advertisement -A separate 286 million birr is to go towards the design and study of palaces.
The government has earmarked 200 million birr for maintenance works for the House of Federation in Addis Ababa, while the House of People's Representatives will see a 500 million birr recurrent budget and a 100 million birr capital budget. A media expansion project at the lower house will take up a further 50 million birr.
The Office of the Prime Minister will take up 200 million birr in capital budget in addition to half a billion birr in recurrent expenditures.
