Controversial Durban port on hold

Transnet's Durban port container terminal. Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi.

Transnet's Durban port container terminal. Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi.

Published Nov 30, 2015

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Durban - Durban's proposed “dig-out” port will eventually become a reality, but development of the controversial port was on ice for now, with the Transnet Port Authority's (TNPA) chief executive declining to even set a date.

Richard Vallihu, speaking at a business-to-business breakfast, said: “For now we have got enough capacity. Due to the capacity we have at the moment, we will be pushing that project [of the dig-out port] out.

“I can't give you dates about that, but all I can say is that we are going to be deferring it.” He said the focus was on improving the existing facilities and well as the efficiency of the existing port.

TNPA is spending some R53 billion on the existing port, which includes the deepening of existing container shipping berths so that the port can accommodate the largest container vessels.

Construction on the dig-out port had been scheduled to start in 2019, although earlier this year, Mark Gregg-McDonald, Transnet's group executive of planning and sustainability, was quoted by the trade publication Container Management as saying construction would begin in 2021.

However, Vallihu would not confirm any date. The proposed dig-out port, if and when it is eventually developed, will be constructed on what was previously the old Durban International Airport in Isipingo, some 20 kilometres south of the Durban city centre.

The proposed port has raised the ire of local residents and environmentalists, who among other things claim its development could lead to the extinction of the rare Pickersgills reed frog.

AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY

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