Plans for a private consortium to finance, build and operate a missing rail link between the Copperbelt and the port of Walvis Bay are back on track.
Plans for what is known as the “Western Rail Project” were first made public in 2009, and the line was approved as an SADC (Southern African Development Community) project in 2013.
Speaking at the Namibia Rail Logistics Hub Forum hosted in Windhoek during July, Ralph Sarjoo of the Epinsan Consortium Zambia said Epinsan had been informed by the Zambian Ministry of Communications and Transport (MCT) that it was the only bidder for the project, which was advertised in December 2017 and closed in January 2018.
The objective of the Western Rail Project is to establish a transformational socioeconomic project that will benefit Zambia and its neighbours, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Namibia, by unlocking their industry potential, according to Sarjoo.
CAPTION
Wagons at a siding on the Walvis Bay – Windhoek line.
