Nice Mairie launch regeneration project

Around 360 million euros is expected to be invested in a public-private partnerships scheme (PPI) in the Pasteur, l’Ariane and Moulins areas of the city.

Over 200 million euros will be invested in Moulins alone, with work expected to begin on 13 December. The vast ‘town inside a town’ quarter, to the west of the city centre, is pivotal to the mairie’s plans to develop Nice into an ‘eco-city’.

The Pasteur quarter is set to have a new public library and a marketplace. These will be in addition to a new hospital facility and a connection to the current tramway network, both of which are already under construction and are due for completion in 2013.

Finally, the last section of the project will see a major redevelopment of local housing facilities in l’Ariane, one of Nice’s most economically depressed quarters. 454 houses are expected to be demolished and reconstructed and a further 351 homes renovated.

Estrosi-Sassone hopes that the investment will help to tackle social problems in these areas, where there exists a high level of criminality and a low standard of living and where unemployment is the predominant cause of deprivation. "We have to help the population in these quarters at the same time as investing in them," she said before adding that there are plans to offer locals professional training to help them find work on the different building sites through the Local Employment Insertion Plan (PLIE).

TD