Jack van der Merwe
Photo by: Duane Daws
Gauteng’s 25-year integrated transport master plan (ITMP25) should be completed by the end of October, with the period for public feedback on the document now closed, said ITMP25 project leader Jack van der Merwe on Thursday.
Speaking in Johannesburg at a Transport Forum event, he noted that the completed ITMP25 would now be presented for approval to all of the metropolitan councils in Gauteng, as well as the provincial government.
“We hope to have it approved by the end of 2013, with implementation to follow,” said Van der Merwe.
The ITMP25 had been developed on the back of a realisation that current traffic congestion, fragmented transport planning and land use patterns in Gauteng did not support the long-term economic growth and development of the province.
“The ITMP25 vision wants to deliver a world-class, sustainable transport system,” said Van der Merwe.
However, he added that the plan had to be managed as a social project, rather than a transport project, as it sought to reshape Gauteng in more aspects than the construction of mere road and rail systems.
Gauteng made up only 1.42% of South Africa’s land area, but was home to 12.27-million people, or 23.7% of the country’s population. This equated to 675 people per square kilometre – a number which was expected to rise sharply over the next few years, as 20 000 people flocked to the province each month as urbanisation intensified.
In turn, however, the province generated 33.7% of South Africa’s gross domestic product.
Van der Merwe said the Gauteng government was “trying to develop” the small province as a global city region, similar to Singapore, especially as its three main cities continued to merge as the population expanded.
He added that the ITMP25 project had to consider several key issues, such as a change in approach to the provision of low-cost housing, as more units were needed per hectare in order to ensure land densification in the fast-growing province.
This would require, for example, multiple-storey buildings, such as three-storey to five-storey walk-ups, rather than single-storey dwellings.
Van der Merwe said the plan also addressed, among other issues, the strict enforcement of the urban periphery; enabling road-based public transport delivery; improving the efficiency of the rail system, mainstreaming non-motorised transport; and finding solutions to the increasing freight tonnage reaching Gauteng each year.