Rivers Set To Decongest PH …Degema, Eleme For Transformation To Urban Centres

As part of the move to break the jinx of the one-city status of Rivers State, the state government has restated its readiness to upgrade Degema and Eleme to cosmopolitan cities with modern infrastructures.
The Administrator of the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, Mr. Desmond Akawor, who made the pledge, also promised the authority’s readiness to demolish all illegal structures at the Greater Port Harcourt city.
Akawor said that, the proposed development of the two new cities was to ensure the decongestion of Port Harcourt, adding that key infrastructures will be sited at the Degema and Eleme/Onne Free Zone axis to create model cities in the zones that would attract investors and individual property developers.
The administrator said that the government will adopt all legal means to secure the Greater Port Harcourt city for investors just as it would provide enabling climate for investment.
“The issue of illegal structures will be handled with human face. We will do everything legally possible to secure the place for investors”, he said.
The administrator, who warned land speculators to keep off the area belonging to the authority, said that the administration was leaving no stone unturned towards winning investors’ confidence for the development of the new cities.
He restated the commitment of the new administration in the state to muster the political will to provide the necessary infrastructure required to transform Degema and Eleme into modern urban centres with attractive facilities for investors and other citizens to find new centres to locate their investments and residential quarters.
Akawor said that when government provides the necessary landmarks that can conveniently drive businesses to boost economic development, investors and well-meaning individuals and property developers would naturally move in to explore the new windows of opportunities in the new cities.
The administrator said that with natural location of Degema and Eleme, government’s attention in boosting infrastructure availability and security can have the multiplier effects of encouraging more private sector investments in the new cities.
He added that when that was achieved, population concentration would gradually shift to Degema and Eleme, just as Bori and Ahoada were initially envisioned as alternative development centres from Port Harcourt.