Hatton said all the infrastructure projects geared for World Cup transport would be ready by the time the crowds arrived.
The ticket kiosk at the Granger Bay station was installed yesterday, and other stations would be completed over the next month.
Bus delivery was on schedule, and batches of buses would begin arriving weekly from next month.
Although there will be no bicycle access in Government Avenue before the World Cup, repairs and upgrades to the paving in the area will make this route more pedestrian-friendly.
The construction of an NMT route along Old Marine Drive outbound has started, but has been put on hold.
The NMT routes from Cape Town Station to the North Wharf via Thibault Square and upgrades to Shortmarket Street are expected to start soon.
Projects already under construction include NMT upgrades to Somerset and Main Roads in Green Point, the construction of a pedestrian bridge across Buitengracht at Coen Steytler Avenue, and NMT improvements to Waterkant from Adderley Streets.
Waterkant Street will be part of the official Fan Walk linking Green Point and the stadium preceinct with Cape Town station and the inner city.
The project has more than tripled in cost, and R16-million of the amount needed for this financial year will be borrowed from the city's rates revenue and repaid in February when the national government allocates its grant funding for transport projects.
The latest adjustment comes after "further refinements" of the IRT's cost estimates.
The city has R584m in hand for a project that will cost an estimated R892m in the 2009/10 financial year, leaving it with a R308m shortfall that will be funded by external bridging finance of R272m.
In its September update of the plan, Fifa notes that the May 2010 deadline to have the Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system running is "very tight and the possibility that this service may not be available for the event poses a considerable risk to the planning of the even transport services".
The extent of the top-up transport services that will be needed for the event will depend on how much of the IRT will be ready. The first phase of the IRT has been scaled down because of escalating costs. The project, estimated to cost R1.3 billion a year ago, will now cost the city R4.3bn.
Taxi operators walked out of an IRT workshop with mayor Dan Plato yesterday after he rejected a proposal to hold a conference for the province's more than 5 000 taxi drivers to explain the IRT process.
Speaking after the meeting, Western Cape National Taxi Association (NTA) spokesman Mvuyisi Mente said talks had deadlocked and that it was now up to the city council to contact them with a date for a provincial "indaba".
Ratepayers will bear the brunt of the ballooning costs of the City of Cape Town's R4.5-billion public transport system and the expected R99-million operating shortfall - by paying higher property taxes, parking and fuel levies, paying for permits to use the city's roads or by contributing to a new Local Business Tax.
It was estimated in August, 2008, that the first phase of the Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) would cost R1.3bn.
But a year later, the city council was asked to downscale the first phase because of unexpected cost escalations. These escalations are now under forensic audit and the findings are expected to be released this week.
Addressing MPs during a portfolio committee meeting in Parliament yesterday, [
Transport director-general Mpumi] Mpofu admitted that the government had failed to "properly consult" with taxi operators before going ahead with plans for the multimillion-rand IRT project.
She said the "the real" consultation process would now begin.
Negotiations had already started between the taxi industry and the government through the National Joint Working Group, she said. The working group was launched by Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele last month to resolve issues related to the implementation of the IRT.
Once the new system is implemented, the present taxi operating licences will fall away, enabling both valid and invalid taxi drivers to be part of the IRT.
The drivers will be registered with the city and the system's operators, and will receive specialised IRT training, says the city's media manager, Kylie Hatton.
But it will be up to the IRT operators, made up of taxi industry role-players and bus companies, to decide whether to employ the pirate drivers.
There is also no clear indication whether the first phase of the IRT system, the nucleus of the 2010 transport network, will be implemented in time for the World Cup. But the government says it is confident that the plan will go ahead.
The South African National Taxi Council, Santaco, says it will ask the government for a larger stake in the control of the Integrated Rapid Transit System.
The taxi body is finalising its proposal that insists taxi operators have more ownership of practical aspects of the IRT system - also referred to as the Bus Rapid Transit system - ahead of its summit on Thursday.
The City of Cape Town has maintained that while it will purchase the vehicles for the industry, taxi and bus operators will run it.
...The Western Cape Provincial Taxi Council said it would urge the government to ensure that stakeholders in the taxi industry kept control of the IRT system, one of its main components.