Cape Town’s city council has earmarked R170 million for infrastructure projects in the Voortrekker Road improvement corridor, it said on Thursday.
Some of the money comes from the national government’s Integrated Cities Development Grant and will be spent with a view to creating jobs and improving education and housing for people living along the artery that stretches from Salt River to Bellville.
“We are doing everything in our power to create an enabling environment to revitalise the urban infrastructure in this area and at the same time to attract the large-scale private sector investment that is required,” said the city’s mayoral committee member for spatial planning, Johan van der Merwe.
He said Cape Town chose to spend funding from the development grant on this area because its geographical location linked it to a vast swathe of the metro and the existing infrastructure lent itself to creating more employment opportunities and high-density housing.
“The VRC, bounded by the N1 to the north and the R300 and Salt River to the east and west respectively, and 8,200 hectares in size, was selected because of its centrality in relation to the entire metro, the number of employment opportunities such an axis presents, the existing facilities available within its borders. and its inherent potential for densification and transport-oriented development.”
A Voortrekker Road improvement initiative has been going since 2012 but the area was confirmed as an intergration zone by the city council a year later. According to figures supplied by Van der Merwe’s office, the state contributed R56 million for the 2014/15 financial year and R50.8 million for the current year.
The council said the development grant money was used to augment funding from other sources.