ARTICLE - NEW PORT-AU-PRINCE = $3 BILLION

3.3 BILLION FOR A NEW PORT-AU-PRINCE
(Haiti Libre) -

Yesterday, Wednesday, the plans of a future Port-au-Prince, ordered by the mayor of the capital, was presented at the Hotel Karibe. This is the result of the work of 40 Haitian experts, engineers, architects, and planners from the Centre Haïtien de Recherche en Aménagement et en Développement (CHRAD), for the last 14 months.

They proposed a "futuristic" Port-au-Prince; a modern city fully renovated, with its trams and a completely redeveloped waterfront, in a tourist and leisure area. It also provided a ministerial quarter on the Champs de Mars, a financial district and a village of artisans, for the "modest" amount of $3.3 billion. The construction is planned over a period of 5 years.

Muscadin Jean Yves Jason, the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, present at the presentation said, "This dream of a new Port-au-Prince is possible!" The Mayor has also called for a sustainable city, a city that will grow without choking, a healthy living environment and a pleasant living environment for all, stating that "the plan we have presented is a version that may be the final one, but we will complete it with the reflections that will be made, and this plan will be sanctioned by a communal decree which states that it is the new plan of Port-au-Prince". Mr. Jason stated that the money for the 13 ministries is already available.

"I think that it is an opportunity for us to finally have a modern city, which is adapted to the requirements that there is now" says Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé, Minister of the Interior and Territorial Collectivity (MITC), adding that the work that was presented was "inspiring" and that it will "encourage people to seek how we can achieve something like this." Mr. Bian-Aimé believes however, that "the reconstruction of Port-au-Prince is primarily a responsibility of the Executive", adding that "in all major Capital Cities it's always a cooperation between the central government and the town hall that modernizes a capital."

Mr. Fritz Jean-Louis, who represented the President said that "the Presidency will play flawlessly the role of intermediary with the Government to come to ensure that all measures be taken to make this project a reality and in order that this new downtown can be inaugurated under the administration of Martelly."

Know that the idea of trams in Port-au-Prince is not new. On January 17, 1878 the first tram line was inaugurated. It connected Croix des Bossales to the Champ de Mars. At the time the service was a success, but the construction of tracks were badly made, derailments were frequent, and maintenance of vehicles did not exist...

In January 2011, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment of Prince Charles based in London, and the firm of Miami, Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ), had also presented images of the future Port-au-Prince