A LOT of development still needs to be undertaken in the Nasinu area in order for the town to be declared a city.
Nasinu Town Council’s CEO Akhtar Ali made this comment while responding to queries on the latest developments in the area and when the town would be declared a city.
Mr Ali said the area was declared a town 15 years ago and it would take another 10 or more years for it to be declared a city.
“There is still a lot of work to be done in the infrastructure, commercial and civic developments in the area. This might take us another 10 years to be completely ready to be declared a city,” he said.
“Even though we meet the population ratio, we can’t compare Nasinu with Suva because they have more businesses and commercial areas.
“We have mainly residential areas here and also the most important factor is the difference of rates in the two municipalities.
“For town councils, everything depends on the rates and our rates are far less compared with rates in Suva.”
Mr Ali said the council faced a lot of problems with collecting town rates from residents.
“It gets very difficult when collecting rates. Our services depends on rates collected and people should know that if they want better services, they must pay rates.”
He said the yearly rate for residents in Nasinu varied because of the area allocation.
