Public Works and Infrastructure Minister, Patricia de Lille, is expected to conduct an oversight visit to the N2 Nodal Development project in the Eastern Cape.
The Minister, joined by Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, will visit the project located in Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, on Tuesday.
The N2 Nodal Development forms part of the Infrastructure Investment Plan approved by Cabinet in May 2020. It was gazetted as Strategic Integrated Project 24e, in line with the Infrastructure Development Act in July 2020.
The Infrastructure Investment Plan forms a central part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) aimed at stimulating economic growth and job creation, announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in October 2020.
The President said the Infrastructure Investment Plan is the “flywheel to economic growth”. It contains 62 projects across the country in various sectors and from all three spheres of government, state-owned entities and the private sector.
Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Noxolo Kiviet, Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Pamela Tshwete, as well as the Head of Infrastructure South Africa, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, will join the Minister. There will also be a delegation from the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
The N2 Nodal Development is a strategic economic and housing provision intervention programme in Gqeberha, and the node is identified and approved as a strategic development area for social and economic upliftment of the region and its communities.
It has been declared as a Priority Human Settlement and Housing Development Area (PHSHDA), as well as a Strategic Integrated Project (SIP 24e).
The node comprises various property portions, centred around the super-regional Baywest Mall, located on the N2 National Freeway. The Nodal Development will deliver a mix of land uses which include:
- residential (from fully subsidised through to upper middle market),
- large-scale retail, commercial and office facilities,
- light industrial and warehousing, as well as the full spectrum of community and social facilities (educational, health, institutional and municipal).
The project is situated in the western areas of Gqeberha along the N2 national freeway leading from Durban in the north, through Gqeberha and eventually to Cape Town in the Western Cape.
The N2 North Nodal Development is a fully integrated mixed-use development with strong economic development components centred on the already established Baywest super-regional mall.
The core of the node is made up of four main projects over an area in excess of 800 ha, including:
- Baywest (±6000 units),
- N2 North (±2950 units),
- Utopia (±1480 units)
- Informal settlement (Gro-Gro) situated on erf 432, potential ±1 700 units
The total scope within the node incorporates some 12 100 new housing opportunities, together with over 500 000m² retail, commercial, office and industrial facilities as well as the full spectrum of community and social facilities.
The housing beneficiary profile for the project is broad and diverse, including but not limited to fully and partially subsidised housing for underprivileged beneficiaries, lower earnings affordable market for both ownership and rental housing solutions, through to middle and upper middle market home buyers.
The delegation will view and receive a progress report on the N2 Nodal Development and its contribution to economic growth and job creation.
Civil works have started at the Utopia site and construction of buildings is expected to commence later this month.
Source: South African Government News Agency