Cape Town - The City’s urban mobility directorate is one step closer to accessing more funds for its initiatives to alleviate congestion on road networks across Cape Town.
This after the directorate received approval from the City’s mayoral committee for approximately R203.5 million to use towards its projects and to add to its Congestion Relief Programme, which focuses on initiatives that reduce congestion during peak-hour periods.
Urban Mobility Mayco member Rob Quintas made the announcement earlier this week, stating that his department would now be approaching the City Council for approval.
“Council made available R750 million in 2015 for a Congestion Relief Programme to address congestion in the Blaauwberg, Kuils River and Kommetjie areas. However, we need more funding for more projects to address congestion on our road network.”
Should the council approve the directorate’s request, the department would have received R953.5 million to use on its congestion relief efforts over a period of 10 years.
Quintas said should the directorate succeed in its efforts to acquire more funding, the City intends to expand the capacity of its existing road network while working to provide additional public transport services.
“Our road network must enable the movement of our residents, goods and services without inconvenience. Congestion hampers our productivity, and comes at a great cost to commuters in terms of time spent on the road and money for fuel, over and above the environmental harm through carbon emissions.”
“It is important that we build more capacity, be it additional lanes or missing road links to support economic activity,” Quintas said.
The request for additional funds excludes R72.8 million the department has collected in the form of development contributions from private sector developers.