By Mphatso Nkuonera- PRO, Ministry of Lands
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Ministry of Lands has sounded a fresh warning for developers to honour road reserves and do their constructions away from them as required by the law.
Commissioner for Physical Planning in the Ministry, Robins Lukas made the remarks on Monday after visiting a site in Nathenje, Lilongwe where a developer encroached on the road reserve and was advised to demolish the structure.
He said the ministry always notes with great concern the tendency of developers especially in the trading centres where they encroach into the road reserve which is the public land under the custody of the Roads Authority.
“Our message is simple, respect the road boundaries, because if you don’t respect the road reserve, you will lose your structures at one point when the government would either rehabilitate or expand the roads because during such moments we use the reserve as a diversion,” he said.
Lukasi added that the demolition of structures in the road reserve delays rehabilitation and expansion of the roads as sometimes the developers go to an extent of demanding compensations despite the corridor being declared public land.
He said time has come where the ministry has moved into full enforcement of the compliance as they have devolved their functions to the district councils and they ( the councils) are on the ground ensuring compliance.
The Physical Planning Commissioner said the ministry has resolved to go into massive sensitisation to ensure developers observe road reserves doing any construction projects.
Aubrey Storey, one of the community members who willingly complied with the law when he was approached, has advised the public to follow suit to voluntarily demolish structures erected within road reserves, and avoid contravening the land laws.
“The laws are there for responsible citizens to follow, now if the ministry of lands is advising us to move our structures out of the road reserve to where we are supposed to erect them, where our own safety is guaranteed we need to follow that,” Storey advised.
The law dictates that, 30 meters from the white line on both sides of the M1 road forms the road reserve.
