Managing Director of Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA) Alhaji Isyaku Mukhtar Kura is a United Kingdom-trained urban planner. In this interview with KOLADE ADEYEMI, Kura, whose agency recently bagged the National Productivity Award, speaks on how the Kano State master plan was bastardised, the construction of multi-billion naira cities, the N32 billion mega-roads and other sundry issues. Excerpts:
KNUPDA has bagged National Productivity Order of Merit Award. How did you achieve the feat?
I think it is because of the facelift that we have given Kano in term of infrastructures. A lot of things have changed in Kano State in terms of infrastructures when compared to what we had on the ground two years ago. If you recall before 2012 there were serious decay of infrastructures in the state especially as it concerned roads and drainage. Before 2012, because of lack of drainage, there were cases of flood that killed a lot of people and destroyed many houses, but we thank God from 2012 to date these have been reduced to the barest minimum.
KNUPDA has been so much involved in the provision of some of these infrastructures, especially roads and drainages. We are also seeing to our main function, which is planning. When we came in, we realised that the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Nasarawa area of the state is no more a GRA; it was just like any other part of the city. All those large land that beautifies the area has been subdivided and allotted to individuals for residential buildings. It was against this background that the Governor told us that we should create new cities for the low and high income earners.
Following his directive, we then created three cities: Kwankwasiya along Zaria road, Amana on its opposite and the Bandirawo on the other part of the state. All these are big towns, which we have created to serve the people of the state. Initially, we only created the area, but the governor afterwards asked us to go into building and now some of the houses in these cities have been completed.
In the cities, Kwankwasiya especially, we provided many infrastructures including drainages, roads and a bridge that linked the city with other areas. In Kwankwasiya city, we have 5 bed-room and 4 bed-room flats that have been completed and people have started to apply for their purchase. Though, the building of the houses is not my area, but what I’m trying to arrive at is that we have selected, design and planned the new cities.
In our efforts to give pedestrians unhindered access road, we have interlocked all the major roads in the metropolis. We are doing the interlocking because in planning if you talk about motorists, you must also talk about other categories of road users. To this end, we have interlocked 65 roads in the city and the contracts for the remaining roads have been awarded. We have also considered the contractors that were left by the previous administration. I think these are some of the things that earned us the National Productivity Order of Merit Award.
How many structures do you have in the three cities?
Well, as I said earlier we are building the cities to open up other areas and by so doing decongest the main Kano city. I cannot tell you the exact number of houses we are building in these three cities because it’s under the supervision of the Housing Corporation of Kano State. We have about 500 plots there altogether. The Kwankwasiya city is a GRA while the two others are mixture which we are buildings for low, medium and high income earners.
We have seen ongoing works on inter-locking streets within the metropolis. How much have you spent on the project?
We have spent over N650 million on the interlocking project. We are doing it not only for beautification, but as I said earlier, to provide roads for pedestrians.
What have you been doing to review Kano’s master-plan which has been bastardized by indiscriminate buildings?
Yes, we have been doing a lot to bring Kano’s master-plan back to base. In fact, this is one of the strong-points of Governor Kwankwaso’s administration. Remember that we had three or so, we had one in 1963 and we had the revised edition of 2003, but unfortunately they did not follow it to the letter. The master plans were not implemented, but this time around, we are reviewing it. From all indications, the government is committed to it. The World Bank has sent representatives to contribute not financially, but in the technical aspect of it. So we are reviewing our master plan and we are going to implement it fully for the interest of all.
What are you doing to tackle flood which has grossly affected some roads within the metropolis?
As I said earlier that if you were here before 2011, you will appreciate what we have done so far because before then there were many cases of deaths caused by flooding and houses were also destroyed. The flood you are talking about was caused as a result of heavy downpour, but we have succeeded to a very large extent, in addressing the problem of lack or blocked drainages. Now if there is rain in less than an hour it will flow away unlike what was obtainable before our coming into power.
How do you want Kano State to look like in terms of planning and infrastructures by 2015?
Honestly, we want it to be like Mecca and Medina or to be modest; we want it to look like Dubai. In these two years of our administration, there have been a lot of changes and it’s still going on. If you want to appreciate what we are doing come to Kano at night from either Abuja or Lagos by air and see what is happening. You’ll see light everywhere, which can only be compared with what is obtainable in either Abuja or Lagos. So we want to see a city that is accommodating more people, providing more jobs and maintaining its beauty. You can see now the traffic in the state is moving now.
