Road works to continue as Msunduzi gets funds

The IPTN project that is meant to develop an efficient public transport network for the city of Pietermaritzburg has been plagued by delays.

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Published Apr 22, 2021

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DURBAN - PIETERMARITZBURG residents that rely on Moses Mabhida Road to commute to and from the city centre will have to contend with traffic disruptions for another seven months as the construction work taking place on the route is expected to be completed in October.

The work is part of the Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN) being undertaken by the Msunduzi Municipality.

The IPTN project that is meant to develop an efficient public transport network for the city has been plagued by delays. Despite being commissioned years ago, councillors have said it is 30% complete, and in 2020 the national Treasury pulled the funding for three years.

The municipality said this week it had received R32 million after negotiating with the national Treasury and the national Department of Transport.

The money will go towards the completion of the work that has already been commissioned.

In a statement, the municipality said its senior manager for Roads and Transportation Planning Ms Lindelwa Mngenela confirmed that on March 26, 2021 the shortfall budget was finally granted by the national Treasury for the Msunduzi IPTN to conclude all current commitments.

It said without these funds, the project would have stalled.

ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said a lot of work still needed to be done on the project and they welcomed that some funds had been made available to complete the work that was already under way which would ease the traffic.

“There are contractors that were still on site working and they could have sued the municipality if they were not paid,” he said.

THE MERCURY

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