R15b rail link planned for Durban

[John Ashworth]

R15b rail link planned for Durban

June 15 2012 at 01:31pm
iol By Barbara Cole

A news R15 billion north-to-south light rail link from Ballito to Moses Mabhida Stadium is a priority project and will be on track in five to seven years.

It “will be the single largest investment in public transport infrastructure in the history of Durban, with enormous long-term positive implications for its sustainability and competiveness as a global city long into the future”, Mike Mabuyakhulu, the MEC for Economic Development and Tourism said at a breakfast briefing in Durban on Thursday.

Mabuyakhulu, who highlighted the rail link during his budget speech in the provincial parliament on Wednesday, said that the long-term strategic objective of the Dube TradePort was the establishment of an aerotropolis (an airport city with retail, hotel, office park and entertainment nodes), and this would need mass investment by the provincial government and the private sector.

Construction would start this month on a R250 million road linking the trade zone to the Watson Highway. This would open property development opportunities in the Herwood precinct for companies that could use the logistics environment being created.

The plan was also to position Dube TradePort, which includes King Shaka International Airport, as a hub for aircraft maintenance in Africa. The site would be purpose designed and have direct runway access for aircraft.

Earthworks would start this month and be finished next May, “after which aircraft hangers, support buildings and bulk infrastructure to the value of R120m will be undertaken”.

But Mabuyakhulu said that the success of the aerotropolis would depend on investment in transport connectivity – hence the plan to build the rail link which “will create a spine along which vast investment and development opportunities can be opened up”.

He said that since the introduction of direct international flights to King Shaka – by Emirates – 3 736 employment opportunities had been created and sustained, with the direct impact on the city’s economy being R396.1m a year.

Special economic zones would be set up in all the districts of the province to decentralise industrialisation and address chronic rural-urban migration, taking into account the advantages and skills in each district.

Another plan was to establish a maritime institute in Durban. “The vision is for Durban to join the great port cities of the world and become a recognised centre of excellence for maritime education.”