Ed Richardson
GOVERNMENT has outlined plans to switch freight from road to rail, and also to promote the use of non-motorised forms of transport such as bicycles and donkey-carts.
Thousands of bicycles are being supplied to people in every province, backed up by training to create expertise in bicycle repairs, transport minister Dullah Omar told a parliamentary media briefing recently.
He says government has set as a priority the shifting of as much traffic as possible - both freight and passenger services - from road to rail.
There are many grounds for this: the most obvious being safety, environmental protection, levelling the playing field for fair modal competition and road infrastructure preservation, says Omar.
Preliminary work has already begun on creating a policy and legislative framework for the establishment of a Rail Economic Regulator.
The Minister reports that the third and final phase of the Lubombo Corridor road - the core of the Lubombo SDI project - has been completed.
The N4 Maputo Development Corridor has also been completed on the South African side, apart from some required flood reconstruction work.
Construction will begin shortly on the N4 West Platinum Highway Development Concession, creating some 16 250 jobs.
Important maintenance work is underway on the N2 Eastern Cape (Kei cuttings) and design studies have been undertaken on the re-routing of sections of the N2 in support of the Wild Coast SDI project.
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