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Johannesburg - The Gauteng government will not ask the National Treasury for the extra money concessionaire Bombela needs to finish the Sandton to OR Tambo International Airport route in time for next year's World Cup, transport MEC Bheki Nkosi said on Tuesday.
"We cannot and will not approach Treasury for additional funding to have the Gautrain link between OR Tambo and Sandton ready in time for the Fifa 2010 World Cup", he said in a statement.
The anticipated completion date for that phase was June 27 2010, according to the concession agreement between the Bombela Consortium and the Gautrain Management Agency signed on September 28 2006.
It stipulates that no extra money will be made available and overruns by the people responsible for delivering the rail link will result in them paying penalties.
Nkosi said Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane had emphasised that there would be no more money for the project, because it was not a project for next year's Fifa Soccer World Cup.
The hosting of the cup has been seen as a symbolic deadline for many of South Africa's infrastructure projects, where the country hopes to show itself off to the rest of the world.
"In the eventuality that the link between OR Tambo and Sandton is indeed operational in time for the Fifa 2010 World Cup, it will be a great bonus for the Gauteng Province and all South Africans, but government will not pay extra to accelerate the construction," Nkosi said.
The full Gautrain system, which will link Johannesburg and Pretoria, is expected to be operational by mid-2011. Gautrain spokesperson Barbara Jensen said Bombela had requested R1.3bn to bring forward the completion date by one month.
Bombela asked to be sent questions by e-mail before commenting, but Jensen said that one of the reasons for the additional costs was to bring in extra people and resources to meet the new deadline.
"We simply cannot afford an extra R1.3bn to have it ready. It was never a Soccer World Cup project. We started planning it four years before the Soccer World Cup was allocated."
She said the government had other pressing priorities and could not allocate the money.
Negotiations are underway with Bombela to consider other options.
"We still believe it's feasible without paying extra money."
The MEC's spokesperson Phillemon Motshwaedi said the department would brief the media at a later date on alternate travel plans for the expected visitors, should the deadline not be met.
- Sapa