Blantyre City Council (BCC) says it will in March next year start demolishing substandard buildings in the city as part of Operation Red Star.
In February this year, President Peter Mutharika revived the Operation Red Star campaign which founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda introduced in the mid-1990s to demolish substandard and archaic buildings in the country’s major cities and towns.
Mutharika issued the order after a tour of Limbe central business district (CBD) where he inspected dilapidated buildings and Malawi Police Service (MPS) residential houses.
BCC spokesperson Anthony Kasunda said on Tuesday the council will start demolishing the houses on March 1 next year.
He said: “The commencement of formal demolition exercise will take place on 1st March 2016 and the actual construction [of buildings in areas that have been demolished] will start on 1st June 2016. But by October 30 2015, all buildings earmarked for demolition will have been painted with red stars.”
There are about 160 buildings earmarked for demolition, 85 structures for maintenance, 79 buildings that need new coat while 55 were certified to be in good condition in both Blantyre and Limbe, according to Kasunda.
The campaign has a committee which includes BCC, commissioner for Lands (South), commissioner for Physical Planning (South), Surveyor General’s office (South), Ministry of Trade and Industry, Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI), Malawi Institution of Engineers (MIE), among others.
