The government will continue to develop the country’s road infrastructure by upgrading roads and building new ones and will particularly endeavour to push the construction of feeder roads in rural areas in order to facilitate the movement of people and to promote trade.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba said this when he officially opened the newly-built road between Aus and Rosh Pinah in the Karas Region on Wednesday
According to Pohamba, road master plans for various regions have already been completed and it is on the basis of these master plans that roads in rural areas will be built in the coming years.
Pohamba said the official opening of the Aus-Rosh Pinah road bears testimony to the government’s determination to implement its development programmes and expand transport infrastructure to all parts of the country in line with Vision 2030 and the country’s development plans.
“Our country is strategically positioned as a gateway for imports and exports to and from our sub-region, especially for our landlocked neighbours in the SADC such as Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. For this reason, our government is fully committed to ensuring that our road network is built to the highest standard and maintained regularly in order to facilitate trade throughout Namibia and to improve mobility and safety of all road users in the country,” said Pohamba.
He said, as a developing country, Namibia must make continuous efforts to position its economy favourably and to make it competitive at regional and international levels, adding that the construction of the said road is part of government’s policy to expand and modernize the country’s road infrastructure to all parts of Namibia.
“The Aus-Rosh Pinah road should be regarded as one of the pillars of our communication infrastructure. This road is connected to the Trans-Caprivi Highway and also forms an important link between Namibia and South Africa through Noordoewer. We are now looking forward to the completion of the road between Rosh Pinah and Oranjemund. As you are aware, during the rainy season, traffic from Oranjemund to the Namibian hinterland is forced to go through South Africa before coming to Rosh Pinah and this forces our people to incur unnecessary costs and delays,” said Pohamba, adding that once the road was completed, there would be a direct link between the two mining towns, thereby facilitating smooth movement of traffic.
The construction of section A of Main Road 118 from Greens to Rosh Pinah was funded by the African Development Bank (ADB) at a cost of N$239 million while the construction of Section B for Main Road 118, about 51 kilometres, was made possible through a loan agreement signed by the Ministry of Finance and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa to the tune of N$96 million.
Work on Section A started in December 2003 and was completed in August 2006, and an additional eight-kilometre road to the south of Rosh Pinah will be completed in December this year to be funded by the African Development Bank.
Pohamba said that he was pleased to know that during the first section of construction, 300 local people were employed while N$202 million was paid to local contractors and workers, which represents 84.4 percent of the total cost of the section.
“This is a welcome injection into the local economy and is in line with our government’s stated objective of empowering the local population”, said Pohamba.
Section B of the road was started in July 2005 and was completed in January this year.
The President also noted with great satisfaction that in this section more than 84 percent of the workers and contractors employed were Namibians and commended the stakeholders for providing employment opportunities and transfer of skills to Namibian people during the implementations of the project.
Meanwhile, President Pohamba noted that he was concerned about accidents that occur on roads and therefore urged community members as well as all road users to take good care of national assets and drive within the recommended speed limits in order to protect their own lives and those of other road users, he also asked community members to refrain from vandalizing road signs.