THE long-awaited Freedom Park Shopping Mall in Kitwe is set to be officially opened during Easter next year.

Works at the mall, which stalled for over four years since Kitwe City Council awarded Platinum Gold a contract to construct the mall, have finally resumed.

Speaking when Kitwe mayor Chileshe Bweupe, town clerk Bornwell Luanga and other council officials conducted a tour at the site, the project's principal consultant Chazya Chileshe disclosed that the mall would be ready for beneficial occupation by December this year.

"It is set for beneficial occupation which means basically the building will be ready for fitting out. In other words the traders or the tenants will come in here and do their internal fit outs, decorations and stocking in readiness for trading," Chileshe said.

He added that no further delays on the project were being anticipated because Platinum had sub-contracted a different contractor to take over the construction.

Yangts Jiang of Lusaka is now in charge of constructing the mall.

And Bweupe said he was excited that the project had finally resumed.

He said it had been the dream of many Kitwe residents to have a shopping mall in their city.

Bweupe urged Kitwe residents to look forward to exciting times ahead.

And Luanga said the council would sign a new memorandum of understanding with Platinum Gold within the next two weeks.