Construction on the 69-km railway line between Ermelo, on the Richards Bay coal line in Mpumalanga, and the Majuba power station, in KwaZulu-Natal, would start before next June, State-owned electricity supplier Eskom said.

Eskom said that it was expecting to complete the construction of the sliding in early 2011, after the Minister of Public Enterprises, Alec Erwin, recently approved the construction of the Ermelo-Majuba railway line .

The company has now invited civil engineering and rail construction companies to tender for the construction and commissioning of the 26-t axle railway line between the power station and Spoornet’s coal line, west of Ermelo.

The full Ermelo-Majuba railway line project would be completed in late 2011 and, until then, Eskom said it would continue to supply most of the power station’s coal needs by road.

About 70% of the Majuba’s coal were being trucked from the nearby coalfields of the Mpumalanga highveld.

Construction of the dedicated railway comes as Eskom ramps up output at its Majuba power station to meet South Africa’s growing need for power.

Due to excess capacity on the country’s electricity supply system and the fact that Majuba’s coal costs were relatively high, Eskom had not been operating the plant at full capacity up to 2002. But, with increased demand for power, Eskom increased production from the plant and, as a result, needed more coal, which were being transported by road.

All Eskom’s coal-fired power stations were built close to the mines from where their coal was supplied, with the exception of Majuba. The coal fields that would have constituted Majuba’c colliery could not be mined economically and the mine had to be closed.

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