South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has announced that it was halting the construction of Gauteng’s freeways with more electronic tolls due to funding issues.
The move comes despite the implementation of a new tariff regime meant to offer certainty to the construction project.
According to a report released by the Agency (Sanral), the new phases of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) will be on hold until they finalise the funding model.
Motorist acceptance of e-tolls had improved since reduced e-toll tariffs had been introduced, but this was not at the level that they had seen before July 2014 when the Gauteng Premier set up a panel to review the socioeconomic effects of e-tolls.
Projects on the roads with e-tolls showed that congestion was still the same to previous years till 2017 to 2018. Reduction in the toll fee and seen an increase in use of the upgraded roads thus making it necessary to toll other highways.
