Africa-Press – Angola. The “Trans-Cunene” project for a railway connection between the Republics of Angola and Namibia, budgeted at 700 million dollars, was presented last Thursday to the Provincial Government of Namibe by Global Business Development (GBD), the Namibian company responsible for the project.
The head of the consortium, Harold Luttichau, reported that the project includes the construction of a new railway line from Lubango to Cunene, 400 kilometres long, and the rehabilitation of the existing line between Lubango and Moçâmedes. The project is expected to be completed within 15 months.
“This rail link project will bring many benefits, not only to Angola and Namibia, but to four other countries in the region. Everything that will be transported on this line will end up at the Port of Namibe. At the start of the project, we will focus on the existing difficulties and then move on to the next phase”, he said.
He assured that the project foresees the creation of jobs, with priority for the community that lives along the line to be built and rehabilitated, as well as increasing the turnover of the Port of Namibe and boosting economic activity in the Southern Region Corridor.
The delegate of the Moçâmedes Railways (CFM), Francisco Mário, highlighted the importance of the “Trans-Cunene” project for the development of transport in the Namibe region and for the promotion of trade in SADC.
“Trans-Cunene will complete this multimodal transport between the Southern Region Corridor and the port of Namibe, which is related to the export of raw materials that are abundant in the South of Angola. It will also create a value chain for transport and the employability of young people who will work on the project. At the same time, the various economic operators in the region will compete to explore this value chain”, he stressed.
The executive director for the Commercial area of the Port of Namibe, Domingos Delfim, stated that the “Trans-Cunene” will be integrated into the Moçâmedes Bay requalification project. According to him, the completion of these projects will significantly boost the Namibe Corridor and increase the volume of cargo handled at the Port. “At the moment, 90 percent of the goods handled at the Port of Namibe are for export, and with the completion of the Moçâmedes Bay Integrated Project, which is scheduled for November 2025, we are expecting to triple the volume of cargo handled,” he said.
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