By JAMES APA GUMUNO
Kundiawa town is running out of rice, alcohol, cigarettes and salt due to roadblocks at Ganaveroka in the Daulo district, Eastern Highlands province.
President of the Simbu Chamber of Commerce and Industry Gerard Philip expressed concern yesterday morning that if the roadblocks continue for some more days, all shops would be running out of stock.
Mr Philip, who owns a chain of shops in the town said as of yesterday shops were running out of rice, salt, alcohol and cigarettes.
He said the Kundiawa general hospital had only 500 litres of diesel left for its vehicles and stand-by generator and if the blockage at Daulo was not cleared the situation would be bad.
Mr Philip said the business houses were affected when the second landslide at the same location occurred last Monday at around 4.30pm .
He said the Government needed to step in urgently and engage a contractor to clear the road immediately to allow normal traffic again.
He said three Highlands provinces were also facing the same problem, namely Western, Enga and Southern provinces.
Meanwhile, big trucking companies transporting fresh produce from Lae into the Highlands and coastal province for export also expressed grave concern yesterday.
Trucking companies like Transwest, Kutubu Transport, Mapai, ABCO and Waghi Valley Transport had lost thousands of kina during the last three days, because their trucks have been stranded on the road or in their base.
Depot manager for Kutubu transport Phil Rogers said five of its fleet, which were supposed to travel down to Lae, were stranded at Mt Hagen depot, while others transporting general goods for business houses and Oil Search Ltd were stranded in Goroka and Lae.
Mr John Tomorope from Mapai Transport said eight trucks transporting general cargo for business houses, Oil Search Ltd and Porgera Gold Mine were also stranded in Lae, while four in Goroka town.