The rapid rail link being tunnelled under Joburg has won an international award for best global public-private project.

The Gautrain is making inroads

THE Gautrain has won international recognition at the annual Public Private Finance Awards, held in London last week.

On the night some 22 awards were given out. The Gautrain won the Best Global Project to Sign award; other similar awards were Best UK Deal to Sign, and Best European Project to Sign.

"This award shows we can hold our own in the world," said Jack van der Merwe, the chief executive of the Gautrain Management Agency and the Gautrain project leader.

The Gautrain is a public-private partnership (PPP) company, under the broad umbrella of the Bombela Concession Company. It is the biggest PPP in Africa.

Winners are selected by partnership experts to highlight the best deals and public-private companies in the market. The competition is held by the Public Private Finance magazine, a publication that focuses on public-private partnership projects in the United Kingdom and Europe.

"As one of 22 category winners, judges recognised the Gautrain's expertise to overcome the unique engineering and socio-economic developmental requirements of this PPP project," added Van der Merwe.

The project has had to deal with geological difficulties, the topography of Gauteng and the "unique socio-economic deliverables". Other PPP projects shortlisted in the Best Global Project to Sign category were the Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant and The Conference Centre Dublin.

"It has also managed to make successful an unusual financial structure [part public, part private] and address socio-economic issues - a unique and challenging feature of South African PPPs," said the judges. "To achieve this, a creative solution was developed so that construction began at commercial close, four months before the financial close."

Two phases
The award acknowledges the team of lawyers who put the deal together. "It is attributed to hard-working South Africans like Metja Ledwaba from Ledwaba Mazwai, which was responsible for the legal aspects of putting the Gautrain deal together. This was done in association with international legal consultants Pinsent Masons," Van der Merwe said.

The chief executive of Bombela, Jerome Govender, said, "This confirms our belief that Gautrain is truly a world-class South African project."

The high-speed Gautrain will connect Johannesburg and Pretoria, with a link going to OR Tambo International Airport.

Construction of the Gautrain is being undertaken in two phases, running concurrently. Phase one will run for 45 months and the network and stations between the airport, Rhodesfield, Marlboro and Sandton will be completed by 2010. Phase two will be completed in 54 months, by 2011; the remainder of the network - the link between Park Station and Sandton, and the route from Midrand to Hatfield in Pretoria - will be completed in this phase.

The total cost of the project is R25,2-billion. More information can be obtained from the Gautrain website or from the Gautrain toll free number 0800 Gautrain (0800 428 87246).

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