The Windhoek-based company, Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik has started the refurbishment of locomotives and wagons for Namibia’s railway company, TransNamib. Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik specialises in making defence and industrial solutions.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah disclosed this when she launched the Sixth National Development Plan and a report on her first three months in office. She said that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between TransNamib and Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik in April for the refurbishment of locomotives and wagons, and the refurbishment commenced in June.
TransNamib plans to spend N$311 million to rebuild seven existing locomotives, a process that involves dismantling and refurbishing each one to extend its operational lifespan by another 20 years.
Furthermore, Nandi-Ndaitwah said contracts for the Kranzberg–Tsumeb–Grootfontein railway line were awarded, with contractors scheduled to commence on 1 August. The proposed upgrade covers a distance of approximately 485 km and ties in with the proposed Trans-Zambezi Railway extension from Grootfontein to Katima Mulilo via Rundu.
Additionally, Nandi-Ndaitwah said procurement commenced in April for a feasibility study on the Grootfontein–Katima Mulilo rail corridor and will close for evaluation in July. This project is part of a cross-border railway connection between Namibia and Zambia, which aims to link mines in the Copperbelt region (Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)) with the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia.
In terms of the Sixth National Development Plan, the government plans to construct, upgrade and maintain railway infrastructure for a safe and efficient national railway network to support socio-economic development.
Namibia, which shares borders with Angola, Botswana, South Africa and Zambia, promotes the facilitation of trade, and capitalising on the handling and movement of goods and services for revenue generation while linking the neighbouring countries to the rest of the world.
In the last development plan, Namibia only managed to upgrade 24 percent of the railway network and an effort made to comply with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) axle load recommendation.
The Port of Walvis Bay was expanded through the new container terminal to handle a minimum of one million Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per annum by 2021, compared to the previous capacity handling of 350,000 TEUs in 2016.
In the new development plan, Namibia further plans to improve existing routes and develop new ones to facilitate the movement of goods, further develop the Port of Walvis Bay to handle increased cargo traffic and to cater to the needs of SADC countries.
