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MINISTER of works and transport John Mutorwa says he will not be part of blame games when it comes to infrastructure development and maintenance.

Mutorwa said this during a workshop on the upgrading of the Walvis Bay railway fuel line on Monday in reaction to representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Mines and Energy not being present despite being invited.

“I don’t want to entertain people who will come and say we were not aware, I did not come. I will just tell them to go to the organisers, because these questions were asked in the media. The thing of excuses is taking us back in terms of moving this country forward,” he said.

Neither ministry’s spokesperson yesterday responded to questions sent to them.

The Ministry of Works and Transport has been implementing its Transport Infrastructure Improvement Project (TIIP) since 2020, which includes the upgrading of Hosea Kutako Road and the railway line between Walvis Bay railway station and Kranzberg station near Usakos.

The railway line, which is approximately 210km long, is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2023.

“The improvement of the rail infrastructure from the port of Walvis Bay into the hinterland is thus to ensure reliability, safety and efficiency in the movement of various commodities,” Mutorwa said.

He said the objective of upgrading the fuel railway line is to boost the economic growth of the country by addressing bottlenecks in the transport infrastructure.

The upgrading of the fuel railway line was not planned for during the construction of the bulk fuel storage facility or the upgrading of the harbour.

During the presentation, it also emerged that sections from the railway station to the port and the fuel storage facility were not catered for in the project.

Henk Bester from Bigen Kumba Infrastructure services, the company consulting on the project, said a portion of about 5km long is unsafe and has reached the end of its lifespan.

“Most components have reached the end of their lives. In most cases it is unsafe for the passage of trains. There could be low derailment cases because of the slow speed of trains, but it’s very unsafe,” he said.

Bester said the upgrading of this portion of the railway, which is estimated to cost of N$150 million, presents an opportunity to strengthen the network to serve and support industries.

He said the refurbishment of the fuel railway line is the key contributor to TransNamib’s revenue, since fuel has been the largest contributor for the past three years.

“It’s critical that we maintain and upgrade this network for maintaining that market share and improving on that,” Bester said.

Andre Olivier, the country representative of Bigen Kumba Infrastructure Services, at the meeting announced that a study has been conducted which has found that an additional 1 000 trucks would be added to Walvis Bay’s roads by 2023.

These, he said, were as a result of new mining activities anticipated.

“All those trucks have to cross the railway line. It is becoming necessary to do something with truck movements,” he said.