Gauteng's ambitious 25-year transport plan

Proximity to reliable and efficient transport infrastructure has an important impact on where people choose to buy property, and consequently on property values. Therefore, Gauteng’s Integrated Transport Master Plan 25 (ITMP25), an ambitious 25-year transport plan that is the brainchild of Gauteng Transport MEC Ismail Vadi, which proposes a complete redesign of the province’s public transport system, has important implications for the real estate industry and for property buyers and sellers.

One of the first initiatives being considered is to relook at e-tolls as a way of funding future highways in the province. Although the idea of e-tolls has not yet been completely scrapped, initial indications are that the Gauteng government has heeded the dissatisfaction of motorists. Vadi told a Sunday newspaper recently that they were “taking a second look at the matter”. He said that, while there was a need to expand and upgrade our road infrastructure and expand our road network, “for future infrastructure funding, we are looking at what our other options are”. He said the government would not scrap e-tolls as it still considers them an important infrastructure. “But there are also discussions about a provincial fuel levy or a provincial tax or shadow tolling.”

In the ITMP25 plan, rail will become the most important form of public transport in the long term, followed by the BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) system, then secondary buses and taxis within the municipalities. There will be a strong emphasis on revitalising the Metrorail service – a system that the bulk of the working people in the province use. There was also the future expansion of the Gautrain by an east-west line. The department is currently busy with a pre-feasibility study. Once it has been approved and the funding secured, the project, like the first Gautrain, it will take 10 years to complete.

By far his most ambitious programme is Airport City, which he is planning around OR Tambo Airport. A draft master plan is already in the making at the Ekurhuleni municipality, which will see a new city in a 25km radius around the airport. The key nodal points for the city would be Tembisa, Rhodesfield, and Kempton Park going on to Alberton and nearly reaching Jo’burg. According to Vadi, if the last century was about highways, the next one is about airport cities.