10 Nov 2015

Botswana Railways will re-introduce the passenger train service to run between Lobatse and Francistown in March next year.

Delivering the State of the Nation on Monday, President Lt. General Seretse Khama Ian Khama said  the plan is to run a daily scheduled night services from each end, with additional services during holidays. 

He said to further improve business performance and service delivery, BR is undertaking a project to procure eight locomotives, while rehabilitating its train station facilities.

Talking about aviation, he said the construction of the Kasane terminal building, which commenced on November 03, 2014, is scheduled for completion inAugust 2016, while the construction of a new air traffic control tower and technical block at Maun commenced in January 2015, with completion scheduled for January 2016. 

Works at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA) Terminal Building have been completed. He said Air Botswana has improved its on-time departures, with an average of 86 per-cent on-time performance rating for the reporting period, while beginning on the 30th of June 2015, Ethiopian Airlines commenced flights into Gaborone

President Khama said government continues to maintain and rehabilitate 18,000 km of road network, comprising 6,400km tarred roads, 7,600 gravel roads and 4,000 earth/track roads. 

As part of ESP we will increase funding in the coming year for projects to decongest the A1 road, while building bypasses in Francistown, Molepolole and Lobatse. 

The government, he said will further prioritise the construction of access roads across the country to help stimulate local economic activity.

He said the road levy collection fund is being used to implement labour intensive road related maintenance projects such as bush clearing, grass cutting, cleaning of drainage structures, pothole patching and road sign repair. 

He said major road works that were at various stages of implementation include the widening of the 30 km Tonota – Francistown road; and civil works contracts covering a total of 335km in the Southern Region. 

Bridges under implementation include Platjan, Ramotswa, Kazungula and Mohembo. Talking about library and information services, he said public libraries continue to transform from conventional book collections to information centres through ICT.

He said as result their operational hours have been extended to cater for the popularity of their expanded services, which include ICT training as well as free internet access. 

The provision of free ICT services in libraries, he said contributes towards bridging the technological divide in local communities. Ends