Thousands displaced by large state projects have made the mountainous area behind Ararat Hotel their new home after being given substitute plots, financial compensation and title deeds by the Addis Abeba City Administration as part of a resettlement package.

The new settlement area is full of freshly glistening metal sheets, hoards of men and women carrying jerry cans and dispersed plots of land marked by wooden poles.

The urbanites who have had their property expropriated around Yeka Mikael, Piassa, Kebele 06 and Shola area have been re-settled to Woreda 09 around the Kotebe area, nearly 300 meters from the main road.

The City Administration has provided some re-settlers with new lease agreements under the Yeka District and financial compensations as high as five million Birr.

According to the communications bureau of the Yeka District, full information has yet to be compiled. However, sources told Fortune that the provision of new lease agreements for re-settlers is still ongoing.

Most of the new settlers have been relocated as they were in the way of the newly constructed road leading to the "Chaka House Project" spearheaded by the Prime Minister's Office that stretches from Megnagna to the Yeka mountains.

The "Chaka House" is a satellite city passion project of the Prime Minister held in close guard sitting on a little over 500hct. It is set to contain artificial lakes, basketball courts, football fields and lush greenery.

The 2019 proclamation on land expropriation for public use grants the city and district powers to evacuate and take over land deemed for public use, relaying that the amount of compensation for the property on the land shall cover the cost of replacing the property anew.

Financial compensation, along with new land was given to homeowners who have legitimate title rights. Residents who did not have formal land-holding rights but rather an incomplete land-holding claim also received new plots of land amounting to 75sqm without financial compensation.

Homeowners with land title rights received the new property and compensation in direct proportion to the total area that they had to forego with some being given up to 500 sqm plots.

The residents told Fortune that an equivalent title to the one they had foregone was being given to them in the new settlement.

Mesfin is a resident of the Kotebe area working as a broker. He is quite happy with the place chosen for the hundreds of new settlers as the property value for homes in the area is already going up.