The Rivers State government has said efforts are ongoing towards actualising the Greater Port-Harcourt City Development Authority (GPHCDA) blueprint by creating new towns and attracting more investors to the state.

The governor, Siminalayi Fubara, stated this during an inspection of GPHCDA office and project sites in Ikwerre local council. He said the government is determined to do more projects by establishing more cities in the state.

Fubara said: “I can assure you that in our time, we might not achieve the dream of that big city in four years, but we will add a few things that would also help us in getting to that target. This is because we are thinking of decongesting Port Harcourt and ObioAkpor, as well as developing other parts of the state. What can be done is create more new cities.”

He said despite the challenges faced by the agency, if development ideals align with that of the government, there will be remarkable differences in what will be achieved.The governor charged the agency to be self-sustaining by attracting investors.

GPHCDA Sole Administrator, Desmond Akawor, noted that since its establishment in 2009, the agency has been slowed down because of the operational structure and nature of the Public-Private Partnership adopted.

Akawor explained that a new legal framework, started by the last GPHDA’s board has been fine-tuned by the current management and ready for presentation to the governor.

“We believe that when that happens, we will look at other towns in the Rivers West, Rivers East and Rivers South-East and be able to have even more development in our state,” he said.