New dry port at border a possibility
KOMATIPOORT - Will a second dry dock resolve the current frustrations of truckers stuck on a gridlocked N4 for hours on end?
Will residents of the border town see less crime and easier traffic access into and from town?
These are some of the worrying aspects that have been plaguing the town for years.
They will be grateful for anything that will help bring these issues to an end, especially traffic congestion, residents said.
But will a second dry dock, which is planned to be built right next to the Lebombo Border Post, a few hundred metres from the town and in the 50-year flood plains of the Komati River, be a solution?
The proposed development by a wellknown international conglomerate, TLG Corporate Services, has been on the cards for a few years, but only recently surfaced when unknown contractors started doing groundwork on the proposed site.
More information about the development, which was seemingly kept under a cloak of secrecy, came to the fore when staff of Ponye Trading and Projects, which has been appointed to do an independent environmental assessment, started collecting information from residents, businessmen, accommodation establishments and farmers.
“One morning a guy visited my sugarcane farm and asked if he could do a water test on the borehole. “When I asked him what the test was for, he said they must establish if the proposed dry port would have any impact on, among others, the water supply in the area,” said a local, Richard Williams.
“It was only then that we realised that the massive development is in the pipeline.”
When this project became public knowledge, concerns such as water pollution, air pulsation, an increase in truck traffic flow closer to town and a possible increase in the already high crime rate, became the talk of the town.
According to a document seen by Lowvelder, the development that would among others develop a dry port, would need to build culverts at the Crocodile River and have a fuel depot that constitutes 400m3 storage tanks above ground.
There will be a dumping and a loading area (apparently to be used to load minerals onto a train), workshops, a weighing station, immigration offices, numerous other offices and a shop.
Part of the development is to extend the existing railway line from South Africa into Mozambique in an effort to load and offload minerals at the new dry port.