Plans are afoot to build a railway line between Durban and Cape Town, running through the Eastern Cape, in a bid to open up that province for economic development and ease the congestion on the deadly N2 section between East London and Kokstad.
This emerged as President Jacob Zuma answered questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Responding to a question from United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa about reducing congestion on the Eastern Cape death stretch, recently singled out as the most dangerous road in the country, Zuma said there were plans to address congestion and economic development in the province, including the building of a railway.
"Plans are afoot that we need to deal with the Eastern Cape - not only to deal with the congestion, but also economic development to open up the Eastern Cape as part of changing the economic landscape," Zuma said.
"There are also in the pipeline discussions about the railway line, which would also add to the opening up of the Eastern Cape route, particularly between Durban and Cape Town, of course with East London and other cities in between."
The N2 highway between East London and Mthatha, and between Mthatha and Kokstad, has become synonymous with road carnage.
This emerged in a road fatalities report released recently by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
The eastern half of the Eastern Cape featured six times in the top 25 most dangerous roads list.
A total of 90 deaths were reported along the East London to Mthatha stretch over a period of 12 months, while 77 deaths were recorded along the Mthatha to Kokstad route.
This was despite the fact that numbers of vehicles using these routes were significantly lower than the country's busiest national roads, such as the N3 between Joburg and Durban.
The other routes in the province to feature on the list of 39 included the roads from:
Port St Johns to Bizana - 33 fatalities;
King William's Town to East London - 31 fatalities;
Queenstown to Mthatha - 31 fatalities; and
Mthatha to Port St Johns - 26 fatalities.
According to statistics, more than 1 300 vehicles were involved in crashes resulting in the deaths of 8 677 people in the province in the last financial year.
Holomisa has in the past asked the Presidency to prioritise fixing the eastern part of the Eastern Cape's "collapsing infrastructure".
In his question to Zuma, Holomisa suggested congestion on the N2 should be addressed by incorporating these areas into Transnet's upgrading of the country's railway system.
"It would save the government money on maintenance costs of the roads in question," he said. Yesterday he told Independent Newspapers it was especially important that goods trains could travel through the Eastern Cape to cut down on the high number of truck accidents.
Plans afoot for Durban - Cape Town rail link
Province
