Hon Chair, hon Minister, hon Chairperson and hon members of the Select Committee on Transport, hon members of the House, distinguished guests and stakeholders, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to stand before you and participate in the debate of the national Department of Transport's Budget Vote for the 2014-15 financial year.
The budget policy statement gave the clear direction that South Africa will take, in this financial year and during the fifth government's term, in line with the 2014 ANC manifesto and the National Development Plan, NDP. Indeed, the people of the country can attest to the fact that South Africa is a much better place now than it was in 1994, with improved access to efficient, safe, reliable and affordable transport for all our people.
As we are celebrating 20 years of freedom and another decisive victory in the national and provincial elections, I would like to remind this House of the words used by the late former president of the country, Dr Nelson Mandela, during the Presidency's Budget Vote debate in the NA on 18 August 1994, when he said:
At the end of the day, the yardstick that we shall all be judged by is one and one only, and that is, are we, through our endeavours here, creating the basis to better the lives of all South Africans? This is not because the people have some subjective expectations fanned during an election campaign. Neither is it because there is a magic wand that they see in the new government. Indeed, as the ANC, we have delivered on Madiba's promise of a better life for all of our people. As the province of the Eastern Cape, we can attest to some of the achievements of the ANC-led government, such as the following. The national government, through the Airports Company of South Africa, Acsa, has upgraded both the Port Elizabeth Airport and East London Airport. Through the support of the national Department of Transport, we are able to get the Mthatha Airport upgrade back on track through the construction of our new runway at the airport that can accommodate bigger aircrafts like the Boeing 747 at a cost of R360 million.
Currently, construction is underway for a new modern terminal building. The construction of the terminal building started on 14 January 2014 and its completion date is expected to be around March 2015. Already 166 local labourers have been employed in the project. The new terminal upgrade is expected to cost the department R212 million. The new terminal building will accommodate offices, a restaurant, a kiosk and shops, while opening up the departure and arrivals concourse to multiple users, which will be complemented in future by a hospitality complex that is projected to include a hotel, conferencing and retail complex appended to the new terminal building.
The new perimeter fence is being constructed to make the airport compliant with the civil aviation regulations. These developments, once completed, will enable a reclassification of the airport to a higher category through the assistance of the Eastern Cape Socio-economic Consultative Council, whilst in the process of completing the Mthatha Airport strategy to inform the development of the Mthatha Airport Development's master plan. This strategy will catalyse the development of a new urban note in the Mthatha and invigorate the development of the airport as an anchor logistic hub in the east of the province.
As part of the strategy roll-out, we are looking at introducing new routes to Cape Town and Durban in the near future. A number of airlines are interested in flying to Mthatha and the new runway and terminal building will ensure that we are ready to meet all our expectations. The airport strategy and plan will complement the provincial civil aviation strategy, which is currently being developed in order to reposition our airport in the provinces. The Bisho Airport will be our second priority in the process.
We appreciate the commitment by the Minister of Transport to ensure that the people of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape are set to enjoy Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, services as we move towards finalising the iBhongolethu Initiative. The Eastern Cape department of transport is also assisting the municipality with the implementation of the BRT as we are participating in the steering committee and technical operations committee.
We will continue to support the implementation of the integrated public transport system in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and the Buffalo City Metro. The Algoa bus company, which operates in Nelson Mandela Bay, has received R195 282 million from the Treasury as the public transport operations grant in terms of the Division of Revenue Act, Act 10 of 2014. This illustrates government's continued commitment to deliver quality transport services to the communities of the Eastern Cape.
Our province is set to benefit from the introduction of the new rolling stock programme aimed at improving passenger rail transport. Such services will form an integral part of our provincial integrated public transport master plan, which we are currently implementing in the Eastern Cape. Through this plan, we will ensure that we introduce inter-town services at least on 10 main routes in the province over the next 5 years.
We appreciate the support that we have received from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Prasa, which has reintroduced public transport operations between East London, King William's Town and Bisho. Significant investment is earmarked over the next couple of years by Prasa. Prasa is embarking on detailed design and implementation of the Motherwell rail link in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro at the cost of R1 billion. Queenstown Station will also be receiving a major upgrade to the value of R57 million and the detailed design is in progress. More projects are being explored for our province over the new term, including a new station at Walter Sisulu University, the Potsdam Campus; the introduction of the East London-West Bank service, a new station in Port Elizabeth; introduction of the East London-Queenstown services, Port Elisabeth Station upgrade or refurbishment and East London Station upgrade.
We also appreciate the support that we are getting from the SA Maritime Safety Authority, which is currently working together with the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan University in an effort to introduce maritime training programmes targeting the youth of the entire Southern African Development Community, SADC, region.
In the Eastern Cape we are working tirelessly in an effort to improve the scholar transport programme in order to ensure that our learners arrive at their schools safe and on time. We are quite aware that ...