The Deputy Minister of Works and Transport, Veikko Nekundi, is in the ||Kharas Region to assess the progress on the Sandverhaar to Bucholzbrunn railway line rehabilitation project, including a familiarisation visit to the port of Lüderitz and engagements with TransNamib.

Nekundi, in an interview with nbc News in Oranjemund, said that the project entails upgrading the 40-km railway section between Sandverhaar and Bucholzbrunn on the Luderitz line from the current carrying capacity of 16 tonnes per axle to 18.5 tonnes per axle. 

"Heavy trucks are damaging the road, and it becomes costly to maintain bitumen roads if we have heavy traffic on that bitumen road, so therefore, we are trying, by all means, to finalise that upgrade of the rail and maintain it properly in order to remove heavy trucks from the road and start again utilising the rail." 

Nekundi says that the current rehabilitation of the road between Rosh Pinah and Oranjemund, washed away by rising water from the Orange River, is still ongoing. 

"Currently as it is, the traffic is somehow affected because the cars are only using one lane, and we are just here to ensure that the colleagues who are interested in repairing this road are on the task, that the wheels are rolling properly, and that there are no hindrances in order to ensure that this project is again completed within time and within budget, and that is the essence."