Modupe Williams: Freetown sees cable car as solution to city's transportation woes

In Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, a significant portion of the land is being used extremely inefficiently, Modupe Williams, a municipal expert with the Freetown City Council, said during a panel discussion at WUF13, Report informs.

"We have a very high population density, but the urban development itself is inefficient. Multi-story buildings are virtually nonexistent in the city," he emphasized.

The expert noted that the climate action plan was developed before the city's master plan and the urban planning mechanism itself, creating significant challenges for Freetown, which has expanded for the past 20-30 years without any systemic strategy.

"The new 2025 planning law was only approved in December of last year, and city authorities are currently continuing to develop tools for its practical implementation," Williams said.

He also added that in 2023, Freetown joined the C40 coalition and prepared a climate action plan, which subsequently became the foundation for the city's updated master plan.

"The document contains urban development principles focused on public transportation, promoting mass transit systems instead of private cars, and a cable car project, which is seen as the optimal transportation solution for a city with hilly terrain and narrow streets," he concluded.