During his state-of-the-nation address in parliament on 9 February 2012, South African President Jacob Zuma
confirmed that Transnet is to spend R300 billion in its capital-expansion programme. Of this, R100 billion is earmarked for the ports, but the rest is all to be for the railway. An important aim is to shift the transport of coal routed to Eskom power stations off roads that are breaking up.
Major expenditure is to benefit the Johannesburg-Durban rail corridor, and there is to be large-scale infrastructure improvement on the manganese export route to the new port of Ngqura near Port Elizabeth. In addition, significant attention is to be given to the railing of coal from mines in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
An important objective in port upgrading is to expand the iron-ore export channel from 60 million tons per year to 82.
Original article [Railways Africa]
