Oshakati — Most roads in Namibia have outlived their lifespan and major rehabilitation will be required in the short- to medium-term.

The cost of upgrading roads to bitumen standard has also increased tremendously. Currently, the rate to surface a kilometre of tarred road is estimated between N$3 million to N$4 million.

Government faces these challenges including the sourcing of money from donor agencies for the development and rehabilitation of national roads, says the Minister of Works and Transport, Helmut Angula. He was speaking at a Roads Authority Stakeholders Information sharing session at Oshakati on Tuesday.

Angula noted that besides rehabilitation, the Roads Authority (RA) is engaged in the construction of main projects throughout the country. The RA promotes labour-based projects managed by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so that the benefit goes to them and not just big contractors.

He acknowledged that appeals were made by some leaders to recruit people only from particular areas.

"While this may be a reasonable request, it falls short of the fact that sometimes required skills are not readily available in the community because of the highly specialised nature of the trade."

Angula appealed to leaders to treat people who come to work in their areas as part of them.

"No one should be denied work because they are not from the community where particular work is being implemented. Namibia is for all who live in it and each citizen should be treated equally," said the minister.

While Government is doing everything to keep roads in good condition through maintenance and control of overloading, it has been observed that a number of overloaded vehicles are escaping weighbridges to avoid being weighed, according to Angula.

To mitigate the factor, Angula said the Roads Authority in conjunction with Customs and Execise will implement a cross-border overload control system which will link the weighbridge certificate to customs clearance documents at border posts.

The system will be implemented from September 1, 2008 at Oshikango, Wenela, Ngoma, Trans-Kalahari, Ariamsvlei and Noordoewer border posts.

He called on all operators and drivers of goods vehicles leaving the country to ensure that their vehicles are weighed at weighbridges and issued with a valid weighbridge certificate before they pass through the identified border posts.

"Failure to produce a valid weighbridge certificate at these border posts will result in not being cleared by customs. Amendment to the current legislation is also underway to decriminalise overloading so that penalty is imposed on the spot," Angula said.

Roads Authority Chief Executive Officer, Erastus Ikela, said the upgrading of the Rundu-Elundu road would cost Roads Authority more than N$800 million. This makes it the largest single road project ever embarked upon since independence.

Up to 370 km of gravel road will be upgraded to tarred road from Rundu through Siko-Nkurenkuru-Mpungu-Okongo, ending at Elundu on the existing tarred road east of Eenhana.

The Omakange-Kamajab road is nearing completion and will possibly be inaugurated soon.

"Once completed, the Omakange-Kamanjab and the Rundu-Elundu road will provide extensive benefit to the national economy and to society as a whole.

These projects represents important milestone in the development of the transport infrastructure in the SADC region and in particular between Namibia and Angola," said Ikela.

He noted that once the projects are finished, people will be able to transport their products easily to various markets in Namibia and across the border.