It has been proposed that the Charlie Cutline road in the Kavango West Region’s Mankumpi Constituency needs to be upgraded to gravel standard urgently, Senior Public Relations Officer of the Kavango West Regional Council Salomo Tenga said.

Tenga on Monday told Nampa this came out in a meeting Minister of Works and Transport, John Mutorwa held with officials of the Roads Authority (RA) and the regional councillors when they went to assess this road last Friday.

“The road is needed to facilitate the transportation of materials to the construction site of the Satotwa Primary School funded by the Chinese government,” he said.

The Chinese contractors need to start with construction of the hostel in March but cannot do so as the road is too sandy.

The about 138-kilometre Charlie Cutline road stretches from the Alex Muranda road to Tsitsabis-Mpungu road.

Tenga said the meeting held with the minister called for an emergency procurement procedure to speed up the construction of at least the 28-kilometre stretch up to the school.

The PRO said the delivering of construction material has been a mammoth task for the Chinese contractors as the Charlie Cutline road is too sandy.

RA Chief Executive Officer Conrad Lutombi told Nampa on Tuesday that although the tender was advertised last year and put on hold over non-availability of funds, lobbying of funds for the Charlie Cutline road is going to commence for construction to start sooner.

“We just want to request for four to five weeks to start the procurement process and have the construction started on an emergency approval. With the availability of funds the remaining phase will then follow to cover the entire road up to the Tsitsabis-Mpungu road.

The Mankumpi Constituency councillor, Lukas Muha said the road has been their cry all along.

He said the road links four regions together – Kavango East, West, Oshikoto and Ohangwena, which he says holds huge economic potential.

Muha said this road could also bring relief to farmers as 104 farming units are situated along this road.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency