The maintenance centre of the city's Roads Authority is moving to a new location in order to make room for the La Gare Eagle Hills Project, a sprawling residential and commercial development that eventually cover the site.

Occupying close to 3,000Sqm of land in Qirqos District around Meskel Flower Square, the garage will be moving to a new designated plot that rests on 16,500Sqm in Aqaqi Qality District.

The Addis Abeba Roads Authority secured the alternative land from the City Administration four years ago. The garage supplies maintenance and fuel services to the Authority's stock of vehicles. It also fuels vehicles of the Federal Ethics & Anti-corruption Commission and Ethiopian Institution of the Ombudsman.

Even though the Authority secured the alternative plot four years ago, it did not vacate then, since the relocation of farmers in the aria was delayed, according to Tieumay Woldegebriel, director of communications at the Authority.

"The farmers refused to move, saying the compensation the government paid them was very low," said Tieumay. "The Authority started a process of negotiation with the farmers."

Now a committee has already been formed to facilitate the relocation process, according to Tieumay.

The area will be used as a residential place for contractors working on the city's mega projects. The 50-billion-Br project will be jointly developed by the City Administration and the Abu Dhabi-based private real estate company, Eagle Hills. The project encompasses three hotels, 4,000 apartments, a mall and entertainment centres on a 36ha plot of land.

Though the Authority is going to evacuate from the area within the coming three months, officials do not have a clue where to place of Vladimir Lenin statue that is currently stored inside the premises of the garage. The statue was brought to the premises of the Authority in 1991 after it was removed from its location in front of the office of the Economic Commission of Africa.

The 20tn bronze monument was erected during the Dergueregime by Ethiopian and Cuban artists at a cost of 40,000 Br. The monument was built and financed by North Korea.

The statue was made to commemorate Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, founder of Russia’s Communist Party and premier of the Soviet Union, who died in 1924.