Swaziland Rail Link project on track

More than 9 000 direct jobs are set to be created in South Africa and Swaziland during the construction of the Swaziland Rail Link project.

“Approximately 3 000 and 6 500 jobs will be created in South Africa and Swaziland individually during the construction of the Swaziland Railway line,” said Transnet Rail Freight Chief Executive Officer Ravi Nair during a recent update on the project.

The Swaziland Rail Link entails the construction of a 150km new railway line from Lothair in South Africa to Sidvokodvo in Swaziland and the revamping of two existing lines in both countries.

“This line has been designed to carry 150 general freight wagons at a time and will be operated as a seamless service without stopping at any of the borders either into Swaziland or out of Swaziland,” Nair said.

Progress on the project includes approval for the purchase of the 506 hectares of land required on the South African side.

Negotiations with the land owners are being finalised to purchase the impacted land.

Nair said the Swaziland Rail Link project will have positive spin-offs such as improving people's lives, supporting regional integration in the South Africa Development Community and accentuating the promotion of intra-Africa trade and economic sustainability throughout the infrastructure investment.

Transnet said the project's primary objective is to reduce rail and road traffic congestion based on realistic and achievable system capacity.

Swaziland Railway Chief Executive Stephenson Ngubane said the joint project is going to bring many benefits to Swaziland and South Africa.

“For many years we did not have a direct link and yet Swaziland trades… in Mpumalanga and Gauteng, most of the flow of trade in import and export comes from [those provinces].

“With this project the cost of transport will be reduced as it is more direct through Swaziland and more direct to the Port of Richards Bay also including Mozambique at a later stage,” Ngubane said.