President Danny Faure has visited the newly completed block of condominiums for first-time home owners and the block of luxury apartments which is still under construction at Perseverance.
This was in the presence of the Chief Executive of the Green Island Construction Company (GICC), Glenny Savy. The condominium project was initiated for first-time home buyers and is a joint-venture between GICC and the government. President Faure visited both blocks and was able to meet and interact with the tenants who have already moved into their three-bedroom apartments housed in the first-time home owners block. Mr. Savy says the luxury apartments will be sold at a higher price and the profit generated will be used to cross–subsidise first-time home owners’ apartments so they can be sold at a more affordable price. Luxury apartments are priced at R5 million while three-bedroom apartments for first-time home owners are priced at R1.5 million and two-bedroom apartments at R1.2 million. The cost of construction for the three-bedroom apartment block aimed at first-time home owners is around R20 million. “In the apartment for first-time home owners, there are three bedrooms and we will soon start construction on the other four blocks which will consist of three-bedroom apartments and we will have five blocks of two-bedroom apartments,” Mr. Savy said. The first-time home owners’ blocks are reserved for Seychellois nationals who do not already own land or private property and they will be unable to sell the apartment for a period of 15 years. However, anyone is free to buy luxury apartments. “Some people can buy it as an investment so maybe they can rent it out. there are no restrictions on luxury apartments and an applicant can buy and rent or sell at their own discretion,” Mr. Savy explained. In terms of security, the entire compound will be totally fenced for the security of the home-owners. it will also be gated and there will be controlled access as well as an electronic house to enter the apartments. Mr. Savy expressed that there has been a high-level of interest in the properties but that some applicants do not have the required 10 percent in savings to access a bank loan. When the South East trade wind starts sweeping the Seychelles beaches with strong and cold wind, Goëlettes Island (part of the Farquhar Atoll) gets ready to host its annual visitors.
Pest-free, treeless and carpeted with grass, Goëlettes is the perfect place for ground nesting seabirds such as Sooty Terns (Golet in kreol) and Brown Noddies (Makwa in kreol), which, starting from the end of April/beginning of May, gather in great numbers on the island and blacken the sky of this piece of paradise. More than half a million seabirds return to Goëlettes once again with only one objective: find a mate and successfully rear a chick, which will carry their lineage on to the next generation of birds.Despite the welcoming environment of Goëlettes island, rearing a chick is anything but easy for the Sooty Tern that have to face different challenges to successfully complete its breeding attempt. Click here to read more The remote island of Alphonse is now completely powered by the largest photovoltaic farm in Seychelles, meaning diesel fuel is no longer needed to make electricity, said a top official of the Islands Development Company.
A total of 2,220 dual glass high-efficiency solar panels have been installed on 0.7 hectares of land -- half towards the east and the other half towards the west -- to produce electricity for the whole island. The project is an initiative of the Islands Development Company (IDC) as a source of alternative energy to cut costs and reduce the amount of heavy diesel fuel used to power two electricity generators on the island. The project will also help to protect the environment from pollution. The IDC’s chief executive officer, Glenny Savy, said that the project is a real cost efficient project which will save the island a lot of money. “For the past months only five barrels of fuel has been used to power the standby generators as compared to five and seven barrels of fuels used every day previously," said Savy. Located 400 kilometres southwest of Mahe, the main island, the Alphonse atoll is part of the Alphonse group which also includes St. Francois and Bijoutier. The atoll has a single resort comprising of beach bungalows and suites. The green energy project is a combination of the solar panels and lithium batteries for storage that has resulted in covering 90 percent of the island’s energy use. The solar panels produce around 800 kilowatts of electricity per day, more than half above the normal total electricity used every day on the island. Savy said that this initiative will not only save money going towards fuel consumption but also that which is going towards the transportation of fuel to the island. “IDC is making a profit on the electricity that it is producing by selling it. The money will go towards infrastructure development on the island,” said Savy. Financed by a South African company, Mettle Solar Investments, the PV farm cost $1.5 million. IDC has injected a total sum of $37,000 (SCR500,000). The Minister for Environment, Energy, and Climate Change, Wallace Cosgrow, said that the project is one that other islands can follow as well as Mahe, which can one day be fully powered by renewable energy. Aside from Alphonse, a similar PV farm will be set on Astove and Farqhuar islands by March 2019 and the bigger one on Desroches island by July next year. By early 2020 all islands under the management of IDC will be 90 percent powered by green energy. Seychelles -- a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean -- relies heavily on imported fossil fuel for power generation and transportation. Currently, only 2.5 percent of the island nation's electrical energy is from renewable sources. The 2.5 percent is expected to increase to 5 percent in the coming three years with several renewable energy projects. Seychelles is also planning to install Africa’s first utility-scale Floating Solar Photovoltaic system on the lagoon at Le Rocher, in the district of Les Mamelles. with thanks to |
VacanciesIDC are currently looking to fill a number of job vacancies within the company. For more information please click below.
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