R300m for flooded Eastern Cape roads

The money would be spent on 30 different disaster relief projects for 2011 and for damage caused by more recent floods, Eastern Cape roads department acting director general Sandile Booi and general manager of roads planning Craig McLachlan told the website.

In the department's annual report, released in October, the cost of the flood damage was estimated at R1.08bn.

Booi and McLachlan said the province had a road maintenance backlog of R17bn, for 42,000km of roads.

In April the South African National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) agreed to take over 4750km of the Eastern Cape's central road network and brought in R150m to finance various projects

Booi and McLachlan told the paper that controversy over e-tolling in Gauteng had caused a delay in Sanral funding in the Eastern Cape, and resulted in another R100m being channelled to road projects in East London and Mthatha.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge