South Africa’s most populous province will require better planning coordination, as well as greater integration across transport modes if it is to avoid future “gridlock”, Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi warned on Tuesday.

The recently released Census 2011 showed that Gauteng’s population had risen to around 12.3-million people, up 33.7% on the 9.2-million inhabitants recorded in 2001, while further inward migration was forecast for the coming years.

Therefore, in releasing a new five-year transport plan, Vadi stressed the importance of planning for a possible doubling of Gauteng’s population over the coming 15 years, as well as for a transport network that was robust enough to sustain average yearly economic growth of about 4.5%.

To achieve that goal, planning would have to cut across municipal and even provincial boundaries as “economic activity did not recognise” such borders.

It was equally important for public and private stakeholders to act in concert and for the user-pay principle to be embraced as one possible financing mechanism, as government did not have the resources necessary to fund the required solutions.

The plan, which emerged following a series of public consultations outlines 13 areas of intervention, designed to alleviate congestion, improve cross-modal integration, bolster mobility and improve environmental sustainability.

Vadi told Engineering News Online in an interview that the document would shape the Department of Roads and Transport’s immediate action plans, while also informing the longer-term 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan, which would be released in the middle of 2013.

The department’s budget for 2013/14 was currently being realigned to the priorities outlined, but would probably not rise materially from the current financial envelope, which had set aside about R4.5-billion for provincial transport activities and a further R2-billion for the Gautrain.

There was pressing need, Vadi said, to incorporate Gauteng’s emerging philosophy of coordination and integration in the areas of commuter rail, freight logistics and the future motorway projects.

His department was already moving to align its investment priorities with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s multibillion-rand project to modernise and expand the Metrorail fleet.

It had already set aside about R40-million in 2012/13 for key upgrades around Metrorail stations and further resources would be set aside in upcoming budgets. Priority would be given to the development of integrated transport nodes around the Vereeniging, Roodepoort, Germiston and Pienaarspoort stations.

Similar attention would be given to the development of inland ports, which Vadi said needed to be located on the periphery of Gauteng in a bid to relieve freight-related congestion on Gauteng’s motorways.

Improving the logistics systems around the existing City Deep inland port was critical. But Gauteng was also working on plans for a further six decentralised logistics hubs, including a plan for a mega inland port, currently known as Tambo-Springs.

This public-private partnership was earmarked for development along the N3 near Heidelberg, in southern Gauteng, but would require collaboration between Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Transnet and the private sector to reach its full potential.

Also under consideration was a series of new motorway projects, which Vadi said would involve investments running into billions of rands and which could probably only be pursued on a user-pays basis.

An immediate priority, though, was to create an institutional mechanism to facilitate greater coordination, which could eventually evolve into a provincial transport authority.

This body, which was likely to start out as a commission, could oversee a province-wide public transportation information centre, as well as help facilitate the proposed migration to a “one province, one ticket” system for all public transport modes.

But Vadi warned that some of the processes could take time to emerge and that the department will seek to balance short-term imperatives in a way that did not undermine the longer-term integration vision.

“For Gauteng, the trend is for a far higher population in future . . . and in the next 15 years this province could have as many 25-million people. If we don’t plan for that now, it will be absolute gridlock,” Vadi warned.