Construction of tracks for the Gautrain will start in the middle of 2004, and the entire project must be completed within five years, senior Gauteng government officials said on Thursday.
The deadline for interested constructors to submit their tenders was September 30, Gauteng finance and economic affairs MEC Jabu Moleketi told a press conference in Johannesburg.
He said those tenders would be evaluated from then until the end of this year. The winning bidder would be announced in January 2004.
”This is quite a major project,” Moleketi said. ”It will have a very significant impact on South Africa.”
Moleketi said the winning bidder had the right to choose which routes should be built in the first phase — to be finished within 42 months.
The Gautrain will link Pretoria, Johannesburg and the Johannesburg International Airport. The idea of the train, also known as the Shilowa Express, was partly to reduce traffic congestion and pollution of provincial routes.
Gauteng transport MEC Khabisi Mosunkuthu said three-million cars drive past the M1 between Johannesburg south and Pretoria east during peak hours.
At total of 400 000 cars pass along that highway each hour at a very low speed, Mosunkuthu said.
”That’s not so good for everybody,” he said. ”We must clear that, and the Gautrain gives us an opportunity to deal with that.”
Moleketi added: ”This is one of the mechanisms that is going to contribute to lowering the level of congestion on our roads. I believe it will make life easier.”
Moleketi said the provincial government would not be ”coming with a big stick to force people to abandon” their cars in favour of the Gautrain. – Sapa