Since this weekend, the route of one of the two cable car lines in the Madagascan capital has crystallized tensions over this costly project. Plans call for one of the stations to be set up on a sacred hill.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tétaud
Last September, in Madagascar, the presidency announced the obtaining of a loan of 151 million euros granted by France. Funds intended for the construction of two cable car lines for Antananarivo. The goal: to relieve congestion in a completely congested capital.
But the project is very quickly criticized by civil society. Because the population was not consulted before the signing when it is the most expensive development ever carried out in the capital.
Since this weekend, it is the layout of one of the two lines that has crystallized the tensions. Plans call for one of the stations to be set up on a sacred hill.
” We regret that this consultation of user opinions takes place several weeks after the signing of the agreements; this situation makes us think that the decision has already been made », Writes in the preamble, the Association of the friends of the inheritance, invited a few days ago to pronounce on the route of the cable car.
Unesco registration ever more compromised
Its president, Frédéric Rabesahala, would like to point out that it is not the whole project that poses a problem, but only the construction of the station on the site of the Upper Town and a few pylons: “ Andohalo Hill is one of the sacred hills of Tana. There, there is like an architectural desecration, but there is a risk of the desecration of religious sites and perhaps of historical sites. And that really poses a problem. ”
The hill, located on a block of granite, has housed several dynasties of Malagasy crowned heads. Today, there are still emblematic monuments such as the Queen’s Palace, the Prime Minister’s Palace, temples or the cathedral.
” We do not take into account the soul of the Malagasy, its way of seeing, its history and its collective unconscious, the myths and legends that have been created around this hill. It is necessary to see how the Malagasy cosmogony is inscribed on this hill in particular and that to disturb the creation of civilization, the creation of all that has been done around this hill, it is this disturbance that risks to ” cause human and societal problems. “
Another tragedy, for the defenders of the site, the installation of pylons in the Upper Town would permanently lose the possibility of registering the site as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ” A registration already compromised since the criticized construction of the Colosseum », Recognizes Frédéric Rabesahala.
The Friends of Heritage offer two other solutions. The first is to build a funicular, which is visually less cumbersome. The second, move the track to the adjacent hill.