Road Motor Service, a subsidiary of National Railway of Zimbabwe, has begun preparation work at the Walvis Bay Dry Port in Namibia. The company has also noted that construction work will resume soon.
Construction work on Walvis Bay Dry Port was expected to begin in November 2013 after the Common Markets of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) promised to present USD $ $1.4m for the project however, this did not happen.
The Managing Director of Road Motor Services Mr Cosmos Mutakaya, noted that preparatory work was underway and construction will soon resume. They are also looking at ways to mobilize funding at the Government level.
Mutakaya further noted that construction of the Walvis Bay Dry Port will entail two phases. The first phase will include civil works which entails a drive-in weigh bridge, storage shades and palisade fence and electric catwalks. Phase two on the other side will involve putting up administration blocks.
The government of Zimbabwe had been granted 19,000m2 of land by the government of Namibia in 2009 to construct its own dry port which would help boost trade.
Completion of the Walvis Bay Dry Port project was supposed to be last year.
The Namibian Ports Authority is at the same time working on expanding Walvis Bay Port. The authority secured a loan of USD $338m from the African Development Bank for construction of a new container terminal at the same port.
