Let's improve new CBD connectivity

| Thursday May 30, 2013 00:00

With over 120,000 square metres of office space having come on stream in the past three years and a similar amount expected to be built in the next couple of years, at least two more hotels, in addition to Lansmore, are expected to be built in the CBD, which is already home to the High Court, the Industrial Court and new SADC Headquarters.Add this to the many restaurants, retail shops and in particular the massive shopping mall that is set to be built opposite the Gaborone Bus Terminal. With large vehicular and human traffic the CBD will be a hive of unprecedented activity and congestion.

Experts see the congestion situation being exacerbated by the absence of alternative access links into the business district.Currently vehicular traffic can only access the CBD from the western side with the other three sides closed.For a country that harbours ambitions of building a 21st Century CBD and brand Gaborone a Diamond City in the mould of Antwerp and Tel Aviv, a single entry to the core of business activity is certainly a recipe for disaster.

From December, we expect to have at least 100 international businessmen coming to Gaborone every five weeks to buy our precious stones.  The CBD is certainly a place that these magnates, their families and colleagues will visit either for business or leisure. We believe that for the CBD to realise its fullest potential and integrate it with the rest of the city, there is need to improve connectivity and open access not only from Nelson Mandela Drive, but also from other sides and link the CBD with the Government Enclave as well as the bus terminus.

At a CDB development executive seminar held last week, the absence of links to the CBD was identified among other challenges that the city planners would have to deal with if we are going to transform Gaborone into a diamond city.With experts saying construction in the CBD is now 60 percent complete, now is the time for the Department of Town and Regional Planning to act swiftly and correct the anomaly, which, if uncorrected, will become not only an insurmountable challenge for human and vehicle traffic but also a major bottleneck to the beauty and future expansion of the new face of Botswana.

                                Today's thought          'The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.'

                                - Desmond Morris