James Hall
SWAZILAND IS eyeing the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (LSDI) as a way to improve its commercial road transport system, and has given the green light to a R300 million loan-raising campaign by the finance ministry to build the Northern Main Road project, a byproduct of the tri-nation development scheme.
LSDI is not just about tourism, said a source in the public works and transport ministry. We will use infrastructure improvements not only to get people to the new game parks but to route commercial transport through the kingdom.
The business community and parliament have been critical of Swaziland's exclusion from LSDI, which has seen most activity carried out in South Africa and Mozambique. The highway linking Johannesburg with Maputo bypasses Swaziland entirely. The Northern Main Road will serve as an alternative, while facilitating truck transport to the citrus industry of Tshaneni, and offering a new route to the sugar industry of Mhlume and the Matsapha Industrial Site. In future, the route will provide access to a new international airport at Mpaka.
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