Durban - The R540 million development of the multipurpose terminal at the Durban harbour will include expenditure of R42 million on a rail terminal in order to alleviate traffic in the city.
Pumi Motsoahae, the port infrastructure manager of the National Ports Authority (NPA), said this week that the road network in the city was close to being saturated and there was a need to shift cargo from rail to road.
Nationally, about 70 percent of cargo is moved by road as ageing and insufficient rail infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the increase in cargo entering and leaving South Africa.
For Durban, which has the busiest port in South Africa and where the city hems in the harbour, poor rail infrastructure means the city is congested with heavy-duty trucks.
Julie-May Ellingson, joint project leader for iTrump (the inner Thekwini regeneration and urban management programme), said: "We are unable to plan appropriately to alleviate traffic congestion because we do not know what is being planned for the port."
The NPA has recently completed a master plan for the Durban port but has yet to release it.
Ellingson said the port city forum, which was re-established about a year ago, was a first step to improving communication between the city and the NPA. However, joint planning was essential to achieving both the city and the port's objectives.
One concern was the expansion to the car terminal, which might result in additional car carriers travelling through the city. Ellingson said: "We need to take a 20-year view and, for example, consider whether the car terminal is in the right place as car carriers come in from the south and have to travel through the city to the terminal."
Also of concern was the development of the multipurpose terminal at the Point and what type of cargo and associated infrastructure would be put in place there.
"The Point area is of value to us as an up-market residential and leisure zone. There is potential conflict over port developments there, but they can be resolved," she said.
One plan to divert traffic away from the city is to build the R70 million Khangela Bridge. This project, to be undertaken by the NPA and the eThekwini municipality, will extend Bayhead Road, the route to the container terminal, to Sydney and Umbilo roads.
The multipurpose terminal, formerly the city terminal, was redeveloped so that the existing multipurpose terminal at Pier One could be converted into a container handling facility.
In the next six years R4.6 billion will be spent on expanding and upgrading container handling facilities at the Durban port. This will include converting Pier One and extending container operations to Salisbury Island.
The development of the new 20ha multipurpose terminal began in 2002 and will be completed in 2006.
Motsoahae said the surfacing of the terminal would begin next year, and by June the first of five berths would be available.
Basil Ndlovu, the NPA's Durban port manager, said recently: "We know our challenges and shortages ... We want the port to be a logistics platform and not just a cargo handling facility."