Mombasa County has forwarded its ambitious upgrade plan dubbed Mombasa County Urban Regeneration Project to the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The plan was crafted by the State department and the county government in consultation with the ministries of Environment and Tourism.
On Monday, Mombasa Deputy Governor Dr William Kingi said that the plan should position Mombasa city as a value addition and manufacturing hub.
“Mombasa is the second-largest city and needs to be planned and positioned to be a major manufacturing and value addition centre. Basic infrastructure has to be there to open it up,” said Dr Kingi as quoted by the Standard.
Some of the targeted areas for upgrade are a high rise parking lot, slaughterhouse, a cancer screening and treatment centre, stormwater drainage system, bus rapid transport, a fish port, affordable homes and an international conference centre.
“Conferences attract tourists all-year-round and has a higher per capita expenditure compared to leisure travel. The county does not have a purpose-built convention centre making it impossible to bid for most international conferences,” said the planners.
The plan aims to solve different problems in the port city such as poor drainage, traffic jams and informal settlements. The plan aims to install world-class infrastructure in Mombasa.
The funding will be through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with major loans coming from development partners, the tourism fund and government loans.