Maria David
FOR any country to develop, its road network should be safe and efficient in order to maximize economic and social benefits.
This was revealed by Deputy Minister of Works and Transport, Veikko Nekundi, during the groundbreaking ceremony at the start of the construction of a brand new district road between Endola and Eembo.
According to Nekundi, good roads play a significant role in achieving national development goals and contribute to the overall performance and social functioning of the communities.
He said that the new road will stretch over 20 kilometres and will be constructed to a gravel standard.
“Roads are also critical in facilitating provision of social services in health and education, hence its construction,” he said.
Nekundi stated further that the construction of this new gravel road will be done through community-based methods and as a result, approximately creating temporary 100 jobs.
He pointed that the construction cost of about N$73 million is co-founded by the Namibian and German governments and that the road will be completed in about 18 months.
The construction will be done by Nexus Civils in partnership with four SME contractor companies Twali Construction, Twalonga Pro-Construction, Inauguration Investments, and Kulla Trading Enterprises while the consulting engineer portion will be handled by a joint venture between Bicon and Aurecon.
He then urged the Roads Authority to continue in its efforts to take development to all corners of the country and at the same time called upon the people who are living in this area and all Namibians to participate and support construction and maintenance efforts of the country’s roads by guarding against vandalism, overloading and other activities that will reduce the lifespan of roads.
Ohangwena Regional Governor, Walde Ndevashiya noted with concern that the region is poorly serviced by poor road networks, especially in the eastern part.
Ndevashiya stated that due to the poor road network in the region, many government institutions and services are very difficult to access.
“This has therefore negatively affected our people in terms of accessing essential services like Hospitals, Schools, Shopping facilities and water points. We are not sitting idle. A lot of efforts have been invested in terms of planning and in this regard, we have a number of strategic and crucial roads that have been planned to be developed across the Region,” he said.
However, to partially address the challenges, the Office of the Governor initiated a project called the “Roads Betterment Project’’ with the purpose to construct some crucial gravel standard roads.
“This initiative has commenced with the constituencies that have bad roads connecting them to government institutions like schools and hospitals. The roads earmarked for construction are between Epembe and Omuhongo, between Onamafila and Onamafila Clinic, and between Onambutu and Onaisaati,” he said.
Ndevashiya stated that with road infrastructure developments being one of their key priorities, his office will continue engaging the Roads Authority on new and existing projects in the region.
