N2 Wild Coast Toll Road set to start

JMK via Wikimedia Commons

The Minister in his capacity as the chairperson of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee (PICC) made the announcement on Thursday at a public consultation meeting in Bizana, Eastern Cape.

The PICC is tasked with overseeing bulk infrastructure projects across South Africa, and it manages 18 strategic infrastructure projects (SIPs), of which Nkwinti is responsible for SIP3 that is looking at South-East Node and Corridor Development. This includes the N2 Wild Coast Highway and new dam at Mzimvubu with an irrigation system.

The department said the minister received a South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) report on the status of the project this week, before the public consultation meeting. Nkwinti said: "We have made a decision. What we want to know now is where we are going to relocate people who have to make way for the road. In case of graves, we want people to indicate where the graves will be relocated.

"We are left with 13 months before construction starts". The department said, if court processes against the construction of the toll road persist, the project will start in 2017.

Support for project based on employment opportunties

"Before construction resumes, houses, graves, animal veld, and mealie-fields will be relocated to suitable alternative land. A survey commissioned by SANRAL about the proposed new route for the N2 along the Wild Coast indicated an almost unanimous level of support for this development," the department said. It said the primary reasons given for the support of the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road are based on the perception that the construction will provide employment opportunities.

"SANRAL argues that communities along the N2 Wild Coast are among the poorest in the country and the construction of the toll road would bring much needed employment in the area," the department said.