Chinese rails for Oshikango railway

THE rails for the railway extension from Ondangwa to Oshikango on the Angolan border will be supplied by China.

Cabinet has directed the Minister of Finance to proceed with negotiating a loan agreement for the Northern Rail from Ondangwa to Oshikango, the Ministry of Information said in a statement on the latest Cabinet decisions. ‘The rail project is ready for implementation and the Ministry of Works and Transport has entered into a rail supply contract with the China Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation,’ the statement said. During the visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China to Namibia in February 2007, Namibia was offered concessional loans totalling N$1 billion to be used to fund projects to be agreed upon. Cabinet approved several projects for submission to the Chinese government for funding under this facility.These were an electronic documents and records management system, customs and excise inspection scanners, the upgrading of the Namibia Institute of Pathology’s laboratories, equipment for the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation, the upgrading of State hospital infrastructure and the rail project from Ondangwa to Oshikango. Namibia bought locomotives from China about four years ago for the rail extension from Tsumeb to Ondangwa. The train was called the Omugulugwombashe Star. However, the Star faded soon, as the Chinese locomotives packed up shortly afterwards and were found unsuitable for Namibia’s rail network. The weekly train service to Ondangwa has also stopped as a result.