Six proposed changes to the Gautrain line will save 50 of the homes originally earmarked for expropriation.
Three of the houses — all in Pretoria — have provincial heritage value, Gautrain spokesperson Jack van der Merwe said in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Five of the changes to the already-approved route have been proposed by the preferred bidder for the project, Bombela.
It plans to tunnel under Katherine Drive, between Mushroom Farm Park in Sandton and the M1, instead of Strathaven; tunnel deeper from Marlboro through the Jukskei River valley under the N3; and raise the line from the John Vorster Drive off-ramp on the N1 to the Jean Avenue off-ramp on the N14 (Ben Schoeman highway) in Centurion.
Instead of a tunnel under Salvokop, it suggests that the line go around the hill to Pretoria station, and that the line hug the existing rail route between the Pretoria and Hatfield stations instead of straying to the surrounding suburbs.
Gauteng’s public transport, roads and works department has proposed its own change — that the line go over, not under, the R21/R24 interchange on its approach to the airport.
It emerged this week that the project’s R20-billion overall five-year cost to the fiscus — announced by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Tuesday — is three times that estimated until now.
A decision to delay completion by three years — from 2007 to 2010 — is one of the reasons for this, necessitating that the project be expanded to accommodate more commuters, said Gauteng public transport, roads and works minister Ignatius Jacobs.
The price of the land needed for construction has also gone up and value-added tax on construction was not included in the original R7-billion estimate in 2002, he said. The budgeting for risks within the public-private partnership has also since been reviewed.
Construction on the Gautrain is expected to start early next year. — Sapa