Namibia has big ambitions to move 50% of all its cargo on to rail by 2025 latest.This is according to Johny Smith, chief executive officer of TransNamib, who says that a lot has already been achieved in a very short space of time.“We see rail projects as the way to advance economic integration in Namibia – a big country with a small population.
It is also critical for further regional integration and development.”Smith said as part of its quest to become a Southern African Development Community gateway to Europe and the Americas, emphasis had been put on road corridor development – and Namibia had proven what could be achieved in a short space of time.
“In just a couple of years we have managed to go from zero base to where we are now, moving more than 600 000 tons of cargo through Namibia as a transit country for Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the DRC and even South Africa.”He said guided by the country’s Transport Master Plan and then the Logistics Master Plan, road development had proved very successful.
“Now it is time for the railways and we have started to push some of the initiatives and projects to move more cargo to rail.”Smith said they already had the volumes on road.
“Many of the rail connections have not been completed – such as the connection between Namibia and Angola.”Only running up to the Angolan border, it now had to be merged with Angola, said Smith.
“ The Trans Kalahari rail connection to Botswana is another big project we are working on.”Admitting that driving more cargo to rail was in no way an easy undertaking thanks to the “many sins of the past from the railways” having to be fixed first, Smith said there was no other option for African countries but to develop rail.“At present we only have about 14% of goods on rail. Our plan is to see this figure move to 50% within the next three to four years.”
