Ndola residents have expressed happiness over the pace at which construction works were progressing at the 40, 000 seat capacity stadium in Ndola on the Copperbelt.
ZANIS Ndola reports that the residents are happy that the stadium had taken shape and was promising to be a show piece in the city.
Caleb Matafwali noted that once completed the stadium would not only add beauty to the city but would also act as a motivational factor to would be soccer stars.
He explained that the Chinese company constructing the stadium had exhibited professionalism and credibility hence must be supported by all Zambian people who wanted to see development in the country.
Matafwali castigated critics of Chinese investment in the country saying that developmental projects should not be subjected to political criticism.
He said President Banda should be praised for continuing on with Chinese developmental projects initiated by the late President Levy Mwanawasa adding that he should snub cheap political interference from opposition political parties that criticised Chinese investment.
Another resident, Mutale Chilufya observed that the construction of the state of the art stadium in Ndola would help revamp failing soccer standards in the province.
Recently, the Chinese company constructing the new Stadium in Ndola, Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company (AFECC), Vice- President Cheng Ju revealed that construction works for the stadium would be completed in July this year.
Construction works on the Ndola Stadium began in August 2009.
And the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) funded rehabilitation works on roads in Ndola has reached an advanced stage with a number of roads already done. Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Villie Lombabya has disclosed.
Mr Lombanya told ZANIS Ndola in an interview that the contractor, Konike Construction Company was on course with road rehabilitation being carried out in Ndola and Kitwe at a total cost of K133.4 billion.
He explained that the contractor had left some portions unattended to because they had to seek advice from concerned utility companies due to the presence of underground cables on those portions.
[pullquote]And the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) funded rehabilitation works on roads in Ndola has reached an advanced stage with a number of roads already done. Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Villie Lombabya has disclosed.[/pullquote]
“Yes for those patches that the contractor has not done, they are meant to give an opportunity to utility companies to liaise with the contractor on how best to progress on areas where there are underground pies, cables and sewer pipes,” he said.
Ndola residents had earlier expressed concern over the pattern in which the contractor was carrying out the works.
The residents complained that instead of carrying out continuous works from point A to Point B the contractor was busy leaving some portions of the roads unattended to, especially corner points.
And in a separate interview, Ndola City Council Public Relations Officer Ester Banda, said the contractor had started working on roads with good drainage systems while for those that did not have good drainages, the company would start with drainages first and subsequently roads.
Ms Banda named the roads under rehabilitation as Makoli, Kaunda, Livingstone, Matero, Zambia, Bukasu and Independence way
ZANIS
Ban football and put the plight of people first
Football is a luxury thing, I wish i can be president
Thanks
Its all Zambians and not only Ndola residents that have been elated by the stadium
Mushota, you attention seeking little brat! You remind me of Lindsay Lohan/ Paris Hilton you mindless little who-re! This is good news for the infrastructure needs of Ndola and I hope the stadium will be put to good commercial use for the development of the beautiful game.
This is Levy’s project and it would be good to name it after Him, Mwanawasa Stadium.
a nice structure is a ghost town ravaged by thieves won’t make any sense.it wil be a white elephant soon let alone a playing field for street adults as it were.
Thats good news to all Zambians
this is good. we should be hosting the africa cup soon
Naming the stadium with the former president name is not a good thing for now….because kuti ba amba ukulwila namashina yabo….william banda will say name it RB Stadium……Shakafuswa will say Mwanawasa Stadium and Peter Machungwa will say we name it FTJ Stadium while old folks will say name it KK………………….i suggest we name it where the junk of the money will come from to repay the loan. We can name The Copper Stadium….after our God given natural resource and its based in copperbelt.
From now on we refer to it as The Copper Stadium ……
It’s good that we can at least see some development. Iam just disspointed someone had to find chance to talk about chinese investment. It seems some people never undertstand criticism. If its good its good. When its bad we shall criticise. It can be a blanket opinion over everything. And about the patches it’s unfortunate our utility companies can’t act at the speed of the people rehabilitating the road. Iam happy they are leaving the spaces than have Zesco come and dig the new tarred road and not fix the damage well
Chiluba wants it to be named after him…RB thinks its a good idea since he is his mentor. So it´s Chiluba stadium.
Why would one want to change the name ‘Dag Hammarskjöld Stadium’ to something else? Lets remind ourselves how the name came about and who he was by simply googling it. You will note that among other remarkable things, this UN Secretary General was awarded a Nobel Peace prize posthumously for his work. It’s a name that instills distinction to a place, and I do not know of any bigger name in Zambia. It also brings good memories of soccer in Zambia.
Number 12, I am with you on this one.
or better still, ‘the chinese stadium’
From my understanding, ‘Dag Hammarskjöld Stadium’ is still a project on its own. The new stadium is not at the same location as ‘Dag Hammarskjöld Stadium’ hence it being called Ndola stadium. Copper Standium as a name is very appealing…. but may be a name like “Chacha stadium” or Chipolopolo Stadium. Thoughts?
Why should we name the stadium as Dag Hammar….fimofimo,lets go zambian pipo and let the died burry themselves.Why should we remember him if even his country have move on kupena always ukutina abafwa atase ulichibanda.
Mushota I love u but over soccer I will say I love the game more than any woman so let’s have this bloody stadium quick. We ve been waiting for toooooo long!
Lya I want to agree with you but I have been to Europe and I haven’t found anything named after African greats and I ask myself why? The people we idolise so much think we are non-existent! Perhaps we shud focus more on ourselves rather than them. We have great sportsmen we cud remember on that stadiium: Ucar chitalu, Zoom Ndhlovu, Tolomeo Mwansa, Patrick Nkole, Moses Simwala, Emmanuel Mwape, Happy Malama, Dick Chama Dickson Makwaza, or Chipolopolo themselves. After the Gabon Disaster we shoud commemorate them.
The stadium works have progressed quickly and efficiently because the monies for this project where never transferred to the Zambian govt. China wrote the cheque, kept the cash, suggested Chines contractors, supplied engineering manpower, etc. A good lesson for all who would be foreign “funders” in the future. If you want to see where your loans go, please originate the loans, keep the money, only provide the necessary logistics to get the job done for those projects.
Zambian politicians never disappoints when it comes to providing “phantom” developmental projects & handing the bill to ordinary poor Zambians. Zambians wouldn’t mind paying back these loans if they can see where the money is spent. But money in the hands of our politicians simply does not work—-sad but true!!
cont. from #19:
Just notice the difference between the two parallel projects in the story. I am sure the Japanese govt simply wrote the cheque and handed it over to our govt hoping they are responsible enough to carry out such simple tasks as road rehabilitation. But here we go, complaints about the quality of work being done have already started!!
You expect buried cables, sewer lines, and “what not” when you do rehabilitation works. It was therefore incumbent upon the concerned parties (contractor, city council, etc) to do due diligence and make sure these cables were moved before hand? You can’t do much about sewer lines, but I am sure the contractor knew this. I wouldn’t be surprised if the roads are left in this state for years to come—it is the Zambian way after all!
cont. from #20:
Very soon they will be claiming they ran out of funds (money) to complete the project. Go figure!!!!!
I like the Name Copper Stadium too very original
# 8 Umwina Kalulushi make sure u maintain the Naming rights if they go with it.
then ukani chekeleko 10%..:)
mushota ur such an a$$. nobody would put you in state house. how can u say they ban football..
Mushota, supporting soccer is part of the plight of people. if you are not a soccer fan keep quiet. however, you are entitled to your own opinion and we respect it.
that aside, the coming up of Ndola stadium will put away the shame that our good sport has surfured for a long time. surrely we deserve better stadiums than what we currently have. am yet to find a country in southern Africa may be the whole Africa that has the worst studiums than Zambia. i remember one time a coach from Tunisia said that the Chililabombwe stadium is like a grassing ground.It is good to note that the scenario is slowly changing. Bravo to the hard working Government.