The “City of Knowledge,” Yachay, is taking shape in the province of Imbabura. Yesterday President Rafael Correa visited the project and asked that construction be accelerated.

“This is the most important project of this government, and I think the most important project in the history of this country,” he said during his inspection at the former San José sugar mill. The old mill, decommissioned 50 years ago, will be restored to become part of the new city.

Ramiro Moncayo said that so far, $35 million has been invested in the project. The money was mainly spent on land expropriations, and on restoring some of the 86 heritage properties identified by the project.

The former sugar mill will become the administrative building of the new university--the axis of the City of Knowledge that, as CNET wrote recently, hopes to become a South American Silicon Valley. Officials from the Higher Education Secretariat informed the president that the master plan for splitting up land parcels and setting construction goals is 80 percent complete.

Moncayo said that in two weeks the master plan will be fully executed, and construction of the university and scientific research complexes can start. He then said this construction will take 30 months.

The megaproject will cover 4,270 hectares (42.7 squared kilometres: about half the area of Manhattan). It will include land for agriculture, protected green spaces and 640 hectares of urban area.

Original story