The long overdue development of the SA-SD rail
Swaziland confident of raising R9bn to fund cross-border railway line
By Nick Smith BDLive
http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/tra...r-railway-line
Swaziland confident of raising R9bn to fund cross-border railway line
By Nick Smith BDLive
http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/tra...r-railway-line
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SWAZILAND is confident it can raise the R9bn it needs to fund its share of the construction of a new 146km rail line between Lothair in Mpumalanga and Sidvokodvo in Swaziland before construction starts next year, Swaziland’s Public Works and Transport Minister Nthuthuko Dlamini has said. The new line will remove general freight cargo from the export coal line, which will boost coal export capacity by 15-million metric tonnes a year, according to Transnet. It is the first large-scale rail investment South Africa has undertaken since the line to Richards Bay was built in 1976. "Many banks are showing interest in taking part in the development of the rail line," Mr Dlamini said last week. His department had been approached by all the private "big banks" in South Africa, including development finance institutions such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Industrial Development Corporation, Mr Dlamini said. South African commercial banks which had shown interest in funding the programme included Nedbank, Standard Bank and First National Bank. Swaziland’s government pension fund had also shown interest, he said. Swaziland had raised R50m and invested about R10m in the feasibility study for the new line, Mr Dlamini said, and had already negotiated a R2bn loan from Transnet, which left its commercial funding requirement for the programme at about R7bn. "After the track has been completed, Swazi Rail will pay back what has been borrowed," Mr Dlamini said. The feasibility study was meant to be concluded "before the end of this year". Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama said the "stakeholder engagements had commenced" as had the environmental approval processes, both of which were "critical path issues" for construction to begin "by the third quarter of 2014". "I am not worried about the funding for the programme. What I am worried about is finalising the environmental impact assessment and getting the approvals in time so that we are able to move with speed," Mr Gama said. From the comments made by Mr Dlamini it appears that some Swazi citizens will have to be relocated as they are living close to or on the route. When the project was announced in January last year, Transnet said it planned for construction to begin by the middle of this year. "We expect the first train to run in three years time after the necessary land purchase agreements and environmental approvals have been resolved," Transnet CEO Brian Molefe said at the announcement of the project 18 months ago. Mr Dlamini said Swaziland planned to upgrade other parts of its rail stock to bring it up to the standard for the new line. Transnet plans to invest about R308bn under its market demand strategy over the next seven years to boost capacity and stimulate economic activity. |
