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Thursday, January 29, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

On Wednesday, the City of Johannesburg announced that Scania South Africa and Marcopolo South Africa are the two bus manufacturers that'll supply buses for Phase 1A of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system. The contract is worth R391-million.

Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo said that Scania will supply and deliver the chassis and engines for 143 BRT buses. Marcopolo will supply the bus bodies.

All the buses will be delivered before the start of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in June. They'll be fully imported from Brazil and won't be locally manufactured.

While all the manufacturers that had tendered for the project, including Scania and Marcopolo, had the ability to assemble and manufacture the buses locally, the tight timelines to the Confederations Cup had made this impossible.

Project manager for the BRT, Bob Stanway:

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On Wednesday, chairperson of the South African National Energy Association, Brian Statham, said that Africa's energy supplies would have to increase at least fourfold by 2025, if the continent was to meet the energy demand of its people.

He said that the most severe challenges facing the continent, with regard to power generation, included inadequate development of the energy infrastructure, high capital costs attached to energy projects, the lack of finance and investing in energy projects, and the lack of technical expertise.

However, he noted that the continent offered a vast and diverse energy potential. Statham said that there are plentiful energy resources in Africa to satisfy the energy demand over the next 40 years. The challenge is to develop these resources and to get them from where they are produced, to the places where they are needed the most. He said more cooperation and integration would assist with this.

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Also making headlines:

The South African Roads Agency Limited seeks to raise a further R2,5-billion by mid-April.
An action group opposes plans to build a PetroSA liquid natural gas facility near Vleesbaai, in the Western Cape.
The Department of Trade and Industry announces a call centre for Soweto.
And, the Air Service Licensing Council warns that a new low-cost carrier is ‘illegal' without a licence.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.

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