WALVIS BAY – The Walvis Bay Municipal Council has in principle approved at least 260 hectares of land at Farm 58, behind dune 7 for four major developments at the coastal town.
The area is earmarked for heavy industrial development in line with the town’s five-year strategic plan launched earlier this year. During the last council meeting of the year held last week Tuesday it was recommended the land be granted in principle to four developers. The applicants are Namib Development and Construction CC, who applied for 50 hectares of land for the construction of a cement factory at farm 58. Also, Phillip Nashandi applied for 10 hectares to set up a micro-copper treatment plant, while the United Africa Group (UAG) also applied for 100 hectares of land, also in the same vicinity for the construction of a bulk liquid terminal. Moto Agency Namibia applied for 100 hectares of land to construct warehouses and storage facilities. Council stipulated that the applicants would have to submit concise project proposals, indicating the timeframe of the planned business activities within a period of six months. It was also recommended that all four applicants submit comprehensive reports with recommendations for council’s consideration. According to council the planning and conceptual design for all four developments were already approved at a meeting held in March 2010. However, according to the Surveyor-General’s diagrams, the remainder of Farm 58 comprises of 2859, 3729 hectares of land parcels.
The ownership of the remainder of Farm 58 currently vests with the government. However, as part of the land swap arrangement, the remainder was allocated to the Walvis Bay Municipality for heavy industrial activities. The power of attorney now needs to proceed with planning matters since a Deed of Exchange Agreement was already obtained.
By Eveline de Klerk