Future logistics plan for explosion

A newly formalised conceptual framework for the development of the transport sector, expects an explosion in transport and logistics as Namibia is positioned to service all its closer neighbours as well as some further afield.
In the effort to fulfil the National Developments Plan’s (NDP4) goal of establishing a Logistics Hub, major roads will be built on existing plans with many additional developments proposed as identified in a baseline description of a Strategic Environmental Assessment that was conducted from March to July this year.
In the proposed Logistics Hub Master Plan, the focus will fall on the road infrastructure which is the vital backbone for the intended logistics hub. Development of the Logistics Hub will include and depend on expanding and upgrading transport and infrastructure facilities along major routes.
The corridors will include the Walvis Bay Ndola Lubumbashi Development (WNLD, aka Trans-Caprivi), the Trans-Cunene, the Trans-Kalahari and the Trans-Oranje, while the major nodes will include, Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Katima Mulilo, Oshikango and Lüderitz.
In a document supplied by the Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment (SAIEA) who are currently running the assessments, the organisation gave a description and magnitude of the proposed work to be done.

SAIEA said, the Walvis Bay Ndola Lubumbashi Development corridor (WNLD) is set to get road upgrading and rehabilitation of the existing plan as well as the development of bypass roads and truck stops.
The second corridor, the Trans-Cunene, will have road upgrading and rehabilitation (existing plan) and the railway upgrading of the Kranzberg Tsumeb line and then the development of bypass roads and truck stops. The Trans-Kalahari corridor again also part of the targeted corridors, will upgrade and rehabilitate the existing plan and will also establish a Trans-Kalahari Railway.
Like the other corridors, the Trans-Oranje corridor will have its road upgrading and rehabilitation based on the existing plan while the existing Aus Lüderitz track is the railway priority.
Walvis Bay will see the expansion of the existing port through several back to back projects of which the new container terminal is currently on-going. Other developments will include the development of the new North port, Phase 1, an integrated urban sustainable development framework, further airport upgrading and the development of a mega truck stop.
Swakopmund will improve its road network by tarring and upgrading the road behind the dunes from Swakopmund to Walvis Bay (existing plan), while Katima Mulilo will see the construction of a bypass road to the border post and expansion of border infrastructure as well as the development of a truck stop for cross-border traffic with Zambia.
Oshikango, another focal point, will develop a bypass road to the border post and expansion of the border infrastructure as well as a truck stop. Lüderitz will have the completion of the railway access to the port from Aus, the improvement of existing port and the development of new deepwater port.
Currently the assessment process which is still in the scoping stage will progress through two more stages before the submission for Environmental Clearance which is set for February 2015.