Construction costs for the proposed Nelson Mandela Bay 2010 World Cup soccer stadium have nearly doubled - from R711-million to R1,2-billion.

This has resulted in the national treasury allocation of R8,4-billion for the construction and renovation of the country's 10 World Cup stadiums - Nelson Mandela Bay included - overshooting initial estimates by at least R2-billion as construction costs of the other four new stadiums to be built throughout the country have also skyrocketed.

The King Senzangakhona stadium in Durban is 18% over budget and Cape Town's Green Point stadium is 54% over.

Cup local organising committee chief Danny Jordaan confirmed on Wednesday that he would visit World Cup host cities in the next two weeks to establish reasons for the overruns.

"We are going to Durban tomorrow (today). We are waiting for a date from Nelson Mandela Bay. We want to assess why and how the costs have escalated," said Jordaan.

Nelson Mandela Bay municipal manager Graham Richards said on Wednesday he could not confirm whether the facility's construction costs had increased, as the tender had not yet been awarded. He said that estimates were "a thumbsuck" as it was "too premature" to confirm costs.

However, sources close to the project confirmed the R1,2-billion increase. Last year, the municipality received about R900-million from the national treasury for the construction of the stadium.

The money was to be released in batches over three years.

A highly placed source who is part of the project management team said the costs had soared because of risk factors, delays which had resulted in the cost of materials going up, and other time-related issues.

The source also revealed that three companies had been short-listed for the awarding of the tender. The three are said to have Chinese, Italian and Dutch international partners.

The Nelson Mandela Bay chapter of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce also confirmed on Wednesday that the stadium building costs now stood in the region of R1,2-billion.

Richards said a Fifa inspection delegation would visit Nelson Mandela Bay next month to assess the progress in preparations.

The nine 2010 host cities will meet in Port Elizabeth today as part of a monthly round-robin schedule to plan for the successful hosting of the Fifa 2010 World Cup, municipal spokesman Roland Williams said.

Eastern Cape News
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge