10 000 JOBS IN CONSTRUCTION PHASE

MBABANE - On completion, the Eswatini Rail Link is expected to deliver significant socio-economic benefits to Transnet, Eswatini Railways and the region.

Some of these benefits will include over E2 billion in direct economic opportunities for small and medium enterprises. As reported yesterday, the project is now becoming a reality. Through an expression of interest (EOI), Eswatini Railways and its South African  Counterpart Transnet have formally called for potential funders. On top of the obvious improved regional integration and connectivity to the eastern seaboard ports of Maputo and Richards Bay, the EOI has further outlined more benefits of the project. They include approximately10 000 direct jobs during the construction phase of the project. The invitation has been extended to those who need to move freight, construction managers, and builders of rolling stock to get in touch, as the long-planned Eswatini Rail Link (ESRL) project inches towards breaking ground.

project

The project is due to see 150km of new rail connect the eastern end of a South African line, at Lothair in Mpumalanga, connect with the western end of an Eswatini line at Sidvokodvo. The lines that run to those endpoints will also require an upgrade, the project says; 282km worth of upgrades for Transnet, and 144km worth of upgrades on the Eswatini side. Most of Eswatini’s cargo comes from South Africa, mostly via road, and the new link could help change that, the ESRL project says. But more significantly, the new link would hook up to a north-south line that runs the length of Eswatini.

Though it is due to act as a backup route for trains carrying coal for export, the ESRL is being developed as a general freight line. Shifting 6.7 million tonnes of freight a year onto that line will help with congestion on the coal export link that runs from Mpumalanga to Richard’s Bay south of Eswatini, says Transnet. And it will be able to scale up, significantly, with up to 12 trains a day each up to 2.5km long. Transnet is now in the process of buying some 500 hectares of land required on the South African side, while Eswatini Railways is securing about 700 hectares at its end. They did not say when they hope to have those land parcels fully secured, or when they envisage actual construction to begin. The closing date for the EOI is April 16 this year.

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