South Sudan’s Vice President, Riek
Machar, has visited the national territory of the proposed new capital,
Ramciel, in Lakes state and inspected a number sites in the area.
On Friday Machar visited Guthum area
within the territory of the new national capital where a possible sea port for
the capital could be located as well as the Holy Cross site where the first
Christian missionary was established in South Sudan.
The Vice President’s Press Secretary,
James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune that Machar further enlightened the
host communities of Ramciel area about the coming phase of ground survey of the
new capital and the eventual relocation from Juba.
“The whole of South Sudan is coming
here,” Machar told a crowd of Ramciel inhabitants who responded with applauds.
The national government last year
resolved to relocate from Juba to the new capital because of a number of
reasons. Machar told the population of Ramciel that one of the reasons for
relocating from Juba to Ramciel is to resolve the issue of land which was difficult
to ascertain in Juba.
Unlike Juba, Ramciel’s current local
population is small with scattered villages far from one another.
Juba was also disqualified because of
administrative stalemate over which level of government – national, state,
local - its jurisdiction should fall under.
He also said Ramciel is located in the
center of South Sudan. “If you travel from Eastern Equatoria, or from Raja in
Western Bahr el Ghazal or from northern part of Upper Nile, you would probably
reach Ramciel at the same time,” he emphasized.
This is the third time the Vice
President has visited Ramciel area following his last year’s visit after the
cabinet resolved to relocate to the site. He first visited the area in 2003
before the signing of the CPA in his capacity as the SPLM’s Vice Chairman for
Administration and was asked by late leader John Garang in Nairobi to inspect
the area for a possible site for a new capital.
Late Garang approved Machar’s report
on Ramciel as the new capital but the decision was later on changed after
intellectuals and elders from Equatoria region sent a delegation to Nairobi and
presented a protest to the late chairman.
Machar informed the inhabitants that
an international company will soon come to the area to conduct ground survey.
A South Korean company known as South
Korean Land and Housing Corporation won the contract out of 66 international
companies that competed in the bidding exercise in order to carry out the
feasibility study of the proposed area.
After the decision was made to relocate
last year, the minister of Housing and Physical Planning, Jemma Nunu Kumba, was
directed by the cabinet to work out plans for the relocation to the new
capital.
In a meeting on Wednesday chaired by
the country’s Vice President, Riek Machar, the minister and the company
presented the work done including the aerial imagery survey of the Ramciel.
The company reported that the next
phase will be to carry out the ground survey including mapping, feasibility
study, environmental and social impact assessment, city structure framework and
demarcation of zones which should be completed by October this year.
The government is currently mobilizing
foreign investment to finance the construction of the new capital city.
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