NAMIBIA will soon acquire a safe and reliable mode of transport for popular routes such as central Windhoek to Katutura, Windhoek to Rehoboth, and Windhoek to Okahandja.
The director of railway infrastructure management in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Robert Kalomho, told Nampa on Tuesday that this follows a feasibility study conducted to determine the financial viability of these routes as railway lines.
The commuter rail transport project is one of many presented to potential investors at the Invest in Namibia Conference held in November last year.
Kalomho said the envisioned project has a few stages of planning before it can be implemented.
“After giving it further due consideration, the ministry may proceed with the detailed engineering design, secure funding and hopefully implement the works.”
He said the choice of railway transport between the said routes was born out of a multitude of factors, such as the envisaged population growth within the capital city; the increase of traffic from the nearby towns, and traffic congestion within the city; and vehicle accidents on the national roads.
Kalomho said it was necessary to explore affordable options that would alleviate many of the problems experienced by the dependency on vehicular transport.
He noted that these potential railway lines would also create employment, and stimulate economic development.
“We have not yet reached that stage of soliciting funding from financiers and the like. There is still a need to finalise some aspects before we seek investors.”
He added that since there are many details to be finalised, it is difficult to provide costing details at present.
An official document seen by Nampa, however, estimated the project at N$2,8 billion.
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