Durban - Transport service providers are being roped in to be a part of the City’s multimillion-rand Go!Durban public transport system.
The independent service providers would include several bus companies and taxi operators that would be participating under their registered companies, among other participants.
The C3 route between Pinetown and KwaMashu is complete and would be the first to go live. It should have gone live in November last year but was delayed, partly due to a dispute between the City and taxi operators.
The eThekwini Municipality had purchased buses to run on the route and believed it should have controlling interest, but the operators felt they were the ones displaced by the project and therefore should have controlling interest, which led to an impasse.
In resolving the deadlock, the City approved a new operating model for the route that would allow the taxis that were not part of the project to operate on the route, with the taxis not giving up their licences as was the plan before.
Head of eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA) Thami Manyathi said plans to launch the project within the next three months were on track, adding that between August and September they would look to finalise the bulk of the contracts with the service providers that would be operating on that route.
Manyathi said they would be tabling a roadmap before the City’s leadership that would be followed by the launching of the project in the coming weeks.
The Mercury has previously reported that eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda had said he wanted the project to be launched by October, which is marked as Transport Month in the country.
“Over the coming weeks we will be engaging with operators and giving briefing sessions, and we will also be signing contracts with the operators that are going to be part of the programme.
“Between now and September we will be signing those contracts; we are hoping that the project goes live within the next three months,” said Manyathi.
The ETA head said they would hold sessions with the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) Durban west region, to brief them on the implementation of project.
“We will hold extended briefings with them, to brief them on the changes as well as the implications of the changes and what they can do to prepare themselves to be part of the process,” he said.
Manyathi also defended the announcement made during the executive committee meeting last week that an amount of R58 million would be moved from the Go!Durban project and other projects to pay for diesel for the City’s buses.
An amount R55.8m would go to Durban Transport and R2.2m would be allocated to the People Mover buses.