Gauteng – Durban route gets lion’s share of R37bn upgrade budget

Integrated approach addresses infrastructure needs ALAN PEAT THE LATEST budget figures released by Transnet reveal that R37.2-billion is to be spent over the next five years on an infrastructure and equipment upgrade for SA Port Operations (Sapo), the National Ports Authority (NPA), Spoornet and Petronet. According to the breakdown issued to FTW by Sapo corporate strategy executive manager, Mervyn Chetty, R11-bn will go to upgrading SA’s main transport corridor, the Gauteng-Durban route. It handles 53.4-million tons of freight each year, he added, with 44.7-m by road and 8.7-m by rail – including 67% of the country’s container traffic. Meantime, R1.19-bn is bound for the Gauteng-Maputo corridor; R4.79-bn for Gauteng-Richards Bay; R8.98-m on the corridors between Gauteng and Port Elizabeth, and East London; R2.14-bn for Gauteng-Cape Town; R1.83-bn for Sishen-Saldanha; and R250 000 for Sishen-PE. The Durban port developments built into the investment, Chetty added, will include the conversion of Pier One into a container terminal facility. This will increase the port’s container handling capacity by 560 000 TEUs over the current 1.5-m TEU capacity of the present Durban container terminal (DCT), and accommodate the forecast growth until 2008. Next in line for container conversion, he said, was Salisbury Island. The three new gantry cranes for the port – with three more due this year – are also part of this package, as was the recent upgrading of the present cranes and straddle carriers. The NPA and Spoornet, Chetty told FTW, will also put R3.2-bn into integrated developments designed to serve the new deep-water port at Coega.