The Addis Abeba City Administration inaugurated a greenery park project that will devour around six percent of the city’s budget and almost seven percent of the tax revenue it plans to collect this year.

With a 2.5 billion Br budget, the park stretches over 18ha of land from Basha Wolde Chilot to Orma Garage near Sheraton Addis Hotel. The park is part of a 29-billion-Br project to revitalise two rivers that cross the city from Entoto to Qality. The whole project is planned to be completed in three years.

Deputy Mayor Takele Uma launched the project even though it was planned to be launched by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), who canceled due to a busy schedule.

The construction of the park will include roads, playgrounds, sports fields, shops, bicycle paths and walkways, as well as entertainment facilities, and is slated for completion next year. Its objective is to rehabilitate rivers and riverbanks, mitigate river flooding and erosion and promote a green economy, according to the Deputy Mayor.

The construction and design of the park will be carried out by Geom Luigi Varnero, which won the project after bidding with five foreign construction companies. Varnero, an Italian firm, is known for constructing the eight-story twin buildings of the former Ethiopian Shipping Lines.

The Rivers Basins, Green Areas Development & Agency will hire a supervisor consultant for the pilot project next week. Ten selected local and international companies have been invited to bid, according to Sileshi Degefa (PhD), CEO of the River Basins Agency, which oversees six offices including the River & Riverside Development Project Office and Entoto Tourist Destination Development Project Office.

The two project offices were merged under the agency and will be accountable to the Office of the City Manager. The measure aims at utilising resources without redundancy, according to the Deputy Mayor's announcement.

Initially, the total cost of the revitalising the Riverside Development and Tourist Attraction projects that stretched from Entoto to Sheraton Hotel was estimated to cost 5.6 billion Br, out of which the Riverside project cost was set at 605 million Br.