SANTO DOMINGO.- The Colonial City street rehabilitation project, which President Luis Abinader inaugurated last October, was joined yesterday by a complementary project led by the Ministries of Tourism and Culture, which will allocate 460 million pesos to rebuild sidewalks, streets and monuments.
The program aims to complement the project financed in the same location by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which seeks to achieve a comprehensive recovery of 4,700 meters of street sections, at an estimated cost of 90 million dollars.
This is a project that seeks to impact residents in the northern or upper part of the Santa Bárbara, San Antón, San Miguel and San Lázaro sectors with the reconstruction of 17 sections of streets worth 110 million pesos, out of a total of 460 million that includes the intervention of the Alcázar de Colón, the Panteón de la Patria and the Puerta de la Misericordia, among other works.
The streets slated for work in the northern part of the city are: Polvorín (Mercedes-Juan Isidro Pérez section); Restauración, José Reyes, Meriño; Duarte, Restauración-La Noria; José Reyes (Las Mercedes section); Santomé, Espaillat, Sánchez, Santiago, Francisco Cerón, 19 de Marzo, Juan Isidro Pérez, Vicente Celestino Duarte, and José Gabriel García. Work will be carried out on the sidewalks, streets, and storm drains in all of these areas.
First groundbreaking
David Collado, Minister of Tourism, broke ground on the project, along with the Minister of Culture, Milagros Germán; the representative of Mayor Carolina Mejía, Mrs. Rosalía Féliz; Juan Mubarak, Director of Monumental Heritage; David Llibre, President of the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores) and William García, President of the Union of Neighborhood Councils of the Colonial City.
“We are going to begin this process of rescuing the Colonial City by investing 460 million pesos from the Ministry of Tourism's budget to unify efforts with the Mayor's Office, with Culture and with all the other institutions so that this Colonial City can shine in the world as what it is, a world heritage site, and that is why the time has come for the Colonial City regardless of the 90 million dollars that the IDB is investing,” explained Minister David Collado.
43 projects
Juan Mubarak, director of Monumental Heritage at the Ministry of Tourism, announced 43 projects to be implemented in the Colonial City under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture through the Executive Committee for Infrastructure in Tourist Zones (Ceiztur). These projects are separate from the one being developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), but were taken into account by the local population.
He explained that they are in the bidding process for the restoration of the Alcázar de Colón, Puerta de la Misericordia, reconstruction of Colón Street, Eugenio María de Hostos Street, Regina Alley, the restoration of facades of heritage buildings, the intervention of the ruins of San Francisco, the San Nicolás de Bari hospital, the royal houses, the Aybar House and the paving of José Gabriel García Street and the revitalization of San José Park.
Spaces
The Colonial City will gain ten thousand square meters of sidewalk space with the rehabilitation of the public spaces of its streets that will be carried out within the framework of the Comprehensive Program for Tourist and Urban Development of the Colonial City of Santo Domingo (Pidtuccsd).
