Marythar Kambinda
Katima Mulilo – The Road Fund Administration has entered into an agreement with the Katima Mulilo Town Council to ensure the rehabilitation of Dr Sam Nujoma Drive and Hage Geingob Avenue in the town.
Road Fund Administration (RFA) CEO Ali Ipinge said the two streets are in dire need of rehabilitation, and that his entity will be able to provide some limited support to ensure that they are upgraded.
“We want to ensure that we see value for money, in accordance with the MoU, in order to ensure that road users get value for money in terms of their contribution to the RFA”, he stated.
“As an organisation, we are fully committed over the next four to five years to triple the funding allocation to local authorities. We will enforce the principles which are enshrined in our agreements that we have signed with all the local authorities in Namibia”, Ipinge noted.
He further stated that this memorandum of understanding between the RFA, Roads Authority and any other local authorities where they are going over and above the annual allocation, will attend to specific needs.
“I must just add that we recently concluded discussions with the Walvis Bay municipality to address key challenges as we try to ensure that we have a key corridor, particularly the Trans- Zambezi Corridor to the Port of Walvis Bay. That corridor should be in good condition to make sure that there is a free movement of goods,” he said.
On his part, Roads Authority CEO Conrad Lutombi observed that they are at an advanced stage in terms of their deliberations with the town council.
“We have a technical team to deal with such issues, and of course, we are also going to include the representative from the RFA so that the two institutions work in partnership. Once all parties are in agreement, we will sign it, and see the implementations through as soon as possible,” he said.
“As part of our interventions within the town of Katima Mulilo, we have also noticed the congestion between the weighbridge and the link to the border. Therefore, we are working on the request of the town council to put up traffic lights at the turn-off to Sam Nujoma Drive.
We are going to construct a two-plus-one carriageway in front of the weighbridge so that we can resolve the problem of decongestion in that area. We have already completed the design, and we will be having the constructor here very soon”, said Lutombi.
We are aware of the condition of our Trans-Zambezi highway, especially from Rundu to Divundu. We have rehabilitated a section of that, and we are now busy with the last section of the road, he added.
Katima Mulilo Town Council CEO Raphael Liswaniso said they are looking into new ways on the construction of roads, which includes using interlocks.
“We have studied other areas, and found that interlocks have a lifespan of 30 years. This will also reduce maintenance costs,” he noted.
A pilot project with interlocks will be done in Lifasi Street.
“It is expensive from the start when you are building a road, but they become cheaper in terms of maintenance”, Liswaniso said.