It has been estimated that some Rs.125bn over the coming 10 years will be required to upgrade our current public infrastructure to world class standards. The Public Sector Investment Programme will be revived to share the cost burden.
Improvement costs to the port, airport, utilities and road networks have been estimated at Rs.42 bn, half of which will be invested in the next three years (2009-2011).
In this year’s budget, Rs.2.7bn have been allocated to improving public infrastructure in the port, airport, utilities and road networks of which Rs.1.1bn has been earmarked for the road budget alone.
A Local Infrastructure Fund, financed by revenues from the National Residential Property Tax (NRPT), will be created to finance key projects of local governments. Disbursements by the Fund will be made on the same performance-based principle.
Key projects include:
- Upgrading of existing road networks (est. cost: Rs12.6bn)
- A Bus Modernisation Programme (est. cost: Rs4.0bn)
- PPP projects (est. cost: Rs14.9bn and exp. start date: July 2009):
- A 12 km Port Louis Ring Road from Sorèze to Quay D
- The Harbour Bridge Port Louis at the level of RCPL to Roche Bois roundabout
- An equity injection of Rs1bn in Airports of Mauritius Ltd for Phase 2 of the development of the air passenger terminal
- Rs400M investment by CHC in equipment for managing container traffic
- Urban developments at Highlands, Tianli and La Tour Koeing (est. cost Rs126bn)
- Construction of Bagatelle Dam and the extension of the treatment capacity at La Nicolière Water Treatment Plant
- Development of an inter-island high speed cable connection
- Purchase of additional capacity on SAFE by Mauritius Telecom
