Rundu road not delayed

THE Roads Authority (RA) has denied that the construction of the multi-million dollar Rundu-Elundu road has been delayed.

RA Public Relations Officer Audrin Mathe in a press release yesterday said earlier reports circulated by Nampa were misleading. “The Namibian Press Agency (Nampa) widely distributed a news report which contained inaccurate and misleading information attributed to the Roads Authority’s spokesperson, Audrin Mathe.In their report, Nampa omitted crucial information that would have helped in the understanding of the present progress on the Rundu-Elundu Upgrade Project,” Mathe said.He explained that the Rundu – Elundu Road Upgrade Project is divided into two phases with Phase One starting from Rundu to Nkurenkuru and Phase Two from Nkurenkuru to Elundu.He said for the first phase, bid documents and bid evaluation criteria had received ‘no-objection’ from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) on June 13, 2007.”The four short-listed contractors/Joint Ventures (JVs) were sent letters of invitation to bid on June 14 2007,” he said, adding that the closing date for the tender is August 22 2007.Mathe said the successful contractor is expected to start work on the site early December 2007.”This is phase one, which Nampa chose not to report on,” he said in the press release.For phase two, the tender process is still ongoing and the actual construction for phase 2 will optimistically start beginning 2009, Mathe said.”The Namibian Press Agency (Nampa) widely distributed a news report which contained inaccurate and misleading information attributed to the Roads Authority’s spokesperson, Audrin Mathe.In their report, Nampa omitted crucial information that would have helped in the understanding of the present progress on the Rundu-Elundu Upgrade Project,” Mathe said.He explained that the Rundu – Elundu Road Upgrade Project is divided into two phases with Phase One starting from Rundu to Nkurenkuru and Phase Two from Nkurenkuru to Elundu.He said for the first phase, bid documents and bid evaluation criteria had received ‘no-objection’ from the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) on June 13, 2007.”The four short-listed contractors/Joint Ventures (JVs) were sent letters of invitation to bid on June 14 2007,” he said, adding that the closing date for the tender is August 22 2007.Mathe said the successful contractor is expected to start work on the site early December 2007.”This is phase one, which Nampa chose not to report on,” he said in the press release.For phase two, the tender process is still ongoing and the actual construction for phase 2 will optimistically start beginning 2009, Mathe said.