Agreement signed to formalize 7 informal settlements

By Iva Danford

20/03/2018

From left: Director of Housing Kolinio Bola, Director WesEng Consulting Ltd Andrew Singh, Permanent Secretary Joshua Wycliffe, Parveen Bala, Rod Jepsen of Wood and Jepsen Consultants and Accountant Praneel Chandra [Photo: Fijian Government]

The Ministry of Housing and Local Government has signed an agreement with their consultants to formalize seven informal settlements.

While speaking at the signing, Minister for Housing Parveen Bala says that 9,790 people will benefit from the formalization of this project.

Bala says that these include settlements in Lovu sea side, Field 4 and Tomuka in the Western Division, Sakoca in the Central Division and three other settlements in the North which includes Vunivau A. Vunivau B and Vunika.

He says the total premium that government has paid to TLTB to dish out to the landowners is $330,341.80.

[Video: Fijian Government]

The two consulting companies that will be conducting the formalization are WesEng Consulting Limited and Wood and Jepsen Consultants.

They will be working on the civil and engineering works for these seven settlements and once these has been completed, the government will issue 99 year land leases.