First shovel kickstarts Karibib Usakos road construction
Despite the controversy around the tender for the rehabilitation of the Karibib Usakos road, construction officially started this week with the groundbreaking ceremony.
In attendance were the Minister of Works and Transport, Hon John Mutorwa, the Erongo Governor, Hon Neville André, the Chief Executive of the Roads Authority, Mr Conrad Lutombi, and a representative of the German Embassy, Mr Thomas Feidieker.
Thomas Feidieker of the German Embassy in Windhoek represented the German Government at the groundbreaking of the Karibib Usakos road.
At the ceremony, the minister said “By improving our roads and railways, we are enhancing our country’s competitiveness as the gateway for the transit of imports and exports, especially for the land-locked countries in the southern African sub-region. As a developing country, we must continue to make these efforts to achieve our National Development Plans, which are the building blocks of Vision 2030.”
The project is funded through a concessional loan exceeding N$372 million from the German Kreditanstallt fuer Wiederaufbau Development Bank to the Namibian Government.
The main contractor is the Chinese concern, Zhong Mei Engineering Group with four local groups as co-contractors for a consideration of just over one quarter of the project value.
The Roads Authority Chief Executive Lutombi said “We can finally commence the rehabilitation works on this project, which we all know will be life-changing once completed. I am confident that all the speakers here today will echo my sentiments that this project is important nationally and internationally as it links to the Port of Walvis Bay.”
“Please allow me to use this platform to assure the Namibian Nation that the Roads Authority takes full cognizance and understands the plight and challenges experienced by local contractors concerning limited work opportunities in the road sector. However, we remain firm and committed to providing a conducive operating environment that empowers and capacitates local contractors to undertake various road projects of different sizes and complexities in Namibia “ he said.
To date, the construction of more than 1700 km of roads has been co-financed by KfW in close cooperation with the Roads Authority.
