Dube Tradeport targets 2009 deadline

ALAN PEAT
WITH THE allocation of R100-million in this year’s provincial government budget, the Dube Tradeport (DTP) – cargo centre for the planned King Shaka International Airport in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) – is on line to hit its 2009 deadline for start of operations, according to the DTP’s project executive for trade zones, Hamish Erskine.
Although the final price is still being negotiated, he told FTW, the bulk of this will be used to buy the land for the development from the Airports Company SA (Acsa).
It is expected to cover preparation of the sites (including clearing and fencing) and hoped to also pay for the construction of the interchange with the N2 freeway.
The trade zone is to have a cargo terminal, perishables facility, inter-modal freight transfer facility, warehousing, cyberport and other commercial and retail opportunities.
“By establishing this zone,” said Erskine, “we aim to optimise the contribution to boosting the economy of KZN, SA and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region by actively facilitating the growth of exports from the catchment area and stimulating the growth of the trade, logistics and business services sector.”
The big advantage of the new airport is that its runway length of 3 700-metres will accommodate the latest wide-bodied aircraft – which the present Durban airport is incapable of handling.
“This will give Durban a cargo hub airport which will handle the inter-continental air cargo which is currently flown in-and-out of Johannesburg International Airport (JIA),” said Erskine. “This, added to the Port of Durban – SA’s hub seaport – will reduce the inefficiencies of the current system and enhance existing multimodal freight flows.”
The airport and tradeport will be a public/private partnership project, he added, and a bidding process will select the private sector partner in the 30-year operational concession.
The master plan - including the development of detailed designs, planning approvals and environmental impact assessments - was started in December, and is expected to take about 18-months to complete.
“This will run parallel to other processes such as choosing the private partner and obtaining treasury approvals. Mid-2009 is the deadline to start operations at both the airport and the tradeport,” said Erskine.