News South Africa

Sanral to handle some provincial, municipal roads

Speaking in parliament last week, Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele indicated that the South African National Roads Agency Limited's (Sanral's) mandate should be broadened, The New Age reports. "As a country," Ndebele said "we cannot have a good national road network while provincial and municipal roads remain in a sorry state."

While Department spokesperson Logan Maistry was unable to give greater clarity on the issue, he told The New Age that he is "aware that there are provincial roads which have been demarcated as national roads and that Sanral will be assisting to alleviate capacity challenges in certain provinces." Exactly which provinces and which provincial roads could potentially be managed by Sanral remains unclear.

CEO of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice), Manglin Pillay, responded positively to the announcement - "Sanral has an excellent monitoring and maintenance team that would be invaluable in assisting with the provincial road network," he told The New Age. According to Saice's annual infrastructure report card for 2011, national roads under the ambit of Sanral far outperformed their provincial counterparts.

Read the full article on www.thenewage.co.za.

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