Addis Abeba to Erect New Market places with 128m Br

The Addis Abeba City Administration’s Bureau of Finance & Economic Development (BoFED) will sign an agreement worth 5.87 million Br with Image Consultancy Plc, next week. The agreement will see the latter providing consultancy services on design and supervisory works for new market centres to be built across the city.

The markets, which will be constructed in five sites of Addis Abeba, in – Akaki, Bole, Kolfe-Keraniyo and Nefas Silk Lafto districts – will sell cattle, fruit and vegetables and grains.

Image Consultancy Plc was selected after bidding against Sileshi Architects & Engineers Plc, Dynamic Planners Plc and three local consultancy firms.

The BoFED runs the project with a fund obtained from the World Bank’s Urban Local Government Development Project (ULGDP). In mid-March this year, when it announced the bid, eligible consulting firms were invited to indicate their interest in providing the services. It employed a quality and cost-based selection criteria.

“Image scored higher points on both technical and financial evaluations,” Andualem Tenaw, Project Coordinator of the ULGDP with the BoFED, told Fortune.

Two of the markets, namely the cattle, goat and sheep markets at Kera and Kolfe- Keranio, will be expansionary works.

“The cattle, sheep and goat markets in the Kera and Kolfe-Keraniyo areas actually existed before,” Andualem told Fortune. “Hence, the work in those areas will focus on modernising and scaling them up, so as to be more efficient.”

The cattle, sheep and goat markets to be constructed at Kera and Kolfe-Keraniyo will rest on 20,500sqm and 9,500sqm of land, respectively.

As far as Kolfe-Keraniyo is concerned, another market for fruits and vegetables will also be constructed at a separate spot. This market will cover 3,398sqm of land. The Bole market will be dedicated to vegetables and grains and will take up some 7,000sqm of land. Planned to take place in Akaki is the construction of cattle market, which will rest on 20,054sqm.

“We expect that, after construction, these markets will greatly help to alleviate problems related to inflation. They will also create employment opportunities for many people,” Andualem said.

Image will establish a team of experts to conduct the study, according to a source in the organisation who requested anonymity. Accordingly; architects, structural designers, socio-economic and environmental impact assessment experts will team up to bring the study to fruition. According to the source, the study will have three phases, over the course of its inception; report, preliminary design and final design will be issued respectively.

The completion of the design will take a maximum of 10 weeks, according to Andualem. After this, a special task force drawn from 20 stakeholders will evaluate the design, and the project will progress on to the construction level. The whole project is estimated to be completed in 18 months time and will cost approximately 128 million Br.

Launched in 2008, the ULGDP has helped Ethiopian cities participating in the project with planning, budgeting, financial management, procurement, revenue mobilisation and project execution. The project has also been helping cities to manage their assets better and improve their services and infrastructure delivery.

Image was established four years ago and is currently operating with level three in consultancy, architecture and engineering. Notable among its consultancy works so far are the construction of gene banks in Addis Abeba and Fiche, by the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, and the construction of a G+4 HQ for the National Lottery Administration, inside its current compound, located on General Wingate Street.
Source: Addis Fortune