East Timor: Portuguese specialists ready first urban plans for Dili, Baucau

Dili, Aug. 17 (Lusa) - A Portuguese-led team of urban planners will present the East Timorese government with the country's first urban development plans in late October, a project official said Wednesday.

Maria Clara Mendes, of the Office for Studies of the Reconstruction of East Timor (GERTIL), told Lusa that the proposed urban plans for Dili and Baucau would be made public in December.

She said the urban development proposals would be accompanied by suggestions for changes in the locations of existing industrial zones and of Dili's harbor and airport.

Financed by Lisbon, the GERTIL studies are being carried out by Portuguese architects, engineer, agronomists and lawyers with the aid of Timorese university students.

Mendes described the first-ever urban plans for Dili and Baucau, the country's second city, as "fundamental instruments" for the cities' development.

EL/SAS.

Lusa