The chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economy and Industry, Public Administration and Planning has also appealed for completion of the upgrading of the Sandverhaar-Buchholzbrunn railway in the ||Kharas Region, without further delay.

 This Ministry of Works and Transport awarded the contract to Trans Namib with the Roads Construction Company as subcontractor to construct the 40-kilometre railway stretch between Sandverhaar and Buchholzbrunn.

During the committee's oversight visit, they were informed that the N$110 million first phase of earthworks, which was to be completed two years ago, stands at 98% complete.

The N$65 million second phase of the bridge's construction commenced three months ago.

The committee welcomed the progress.

"The only appeal we made to the stakeholders involved in this project was not to lose momentum anymore; otherwise those opportunities will slip away. Those who are from TransNamib shifting their goods to South Africa and Northern Cape might switch to someone else, and if they do that, we will deny Namibians the necessary job opportunities to build this economy," emphasised Committee Chairperson Iipumbu Shiimi.

The consultant engineer Jonas Hamalwa highlighted the cause of the project's delay.

"For the phase, the contract was N$110 million, but due to escalation, it will be a little bit higher than that. The bridge's contract is N$65 million. In the subsequent phase, or the last phase, I can't say I can say the amount because the bid is about to come out. The procurement process was the biggest challenge as it was very vestiges, following the physical execution , we have encountered the water problem as water is needed for construction as you can we are in a semi-desert area, as you can see the contract was awarded to our public entities within the procurement framework and planning also was a challenge."

The project is expected to be completed during the 2027/2028 financial year.