The Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, will be visiting the Central Line on Thursday, 12 May to assess the ongoing work to recover the line and the relocation of illegal settlements on the rail infrastructure.
According to reports, Mbalula will engage with community leaders around 2pm as well as with the residents living on the railway line.
About a week ago, the Minister indicated that a piece of land has now been identified and he will be meeting with the Minister of Human Settlements to finalise preparations.
“What we are doing as the passenger rail, particularly PRASA, is to continue with our work. If you go to Langa, you will see the work that we are doing to secure the rail network, while people are waiting to be resettled,” Mbalula said.
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Earlier this year, Mbalula also indicated that it will cost the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) about R4 billion to repair and rehabilitate stations and damaged infrastructure.
“The cost to PRASA to repair and rehabilitate the vandalised infrastructure is at the tune of R4 994 674 062.88. Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have suffered the most devastating vandalism of rail infrastructure.
“A key consideration in achieving this objective is achieving a quicker turnaround time in repairing vandalised stations and rehabilitating damaged infrastructure,” Mbalula indicated.
Meanwhile, the rail network in the Western Cape has been temporarily suspended as cable theft and vandalism caused power outages that led to widespread disruptions.
According to Metrorail’s spokesperson Nana Zenani, there were a number of power outages in various corridors that feed into the Metrorail substation.
Zenani said the Cape Flats, southern suburbs, and northern lines have all been affected.
“Due to the Eskom cable theft this morning, Metrorail Western Cape would like to caution commuters of a possible service cancellation for Thursday.
“Metrorail will endeavour to update customers as soon as the service is resolved by Eskom,” Zenani said.
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