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The road is long

By LUANA PANIU
Almost hidden, between a vast mass of green untouched virgin forests, the Sebirigi road looked like a giant serpent, slowly making its way through the terrains of steep mountains and overhanging cliffs, right through trees and shrubbery only to come to an abrupt halt.
Picture perfect in all its splendour, the scene before me masked the sweat and hard labour it took locals to construct the 52 kilometer stretch of road which will bridge the gap between the highlands and the coast.
Although it has yet to be completed, this road, is just the beginning of a long-awaited milestone for the people of the Southern Highlands province.
Seated from an aerial view of the helicopter, with about 2-inches of metal separating me from the treetops, hovering over the terraineous shrubberies below and taking in the scenery through the aerial lenses of my camera, the perfect contrast between the jagged beige road and its green surroundings was an imprint of sheer determination and hard work.
We flew above the long stretch of road, finally reaching our destination in a little village called Pawabi-where the road is yet to continue into - where preparations were taking place to celebrate the initiation of the road and show appreciation for its inception.
“People don’t realize the importance of road infrastructure to access to markets to make development happen,” said Managing Director for landowner company, Civil Pacific Construction (CIVPAC).
Taking initiative to build the road, since 2002 when licensed, CIVPAC has been drilling and blasting through mountains and clean cutting through masses of rainforests to construct a road link from Gobe to Pawabi village, with 10 more kilometres to go before completing this first phase.
The company is the only national construction company with a drill and blast licence and have opened up this access route which was all cliff up until now, was not accessible by man or machine.
“These mountains seperate the highlands from the coast and it took us 6-8months to get over the 1st kilometer of mountain,” he said.
And the task most certainly has not been easy, with funding a major setback for CIVPAC employees, largely made up of locals from the Bogasi clan of Pawabi.
“There are times we have had to shut down the main valve at Gobe which connects to all oil production pipelines and operations done in both Gobe and Morro,” said Project Co-ordinator, Michael John.
“This is so the Government can meet our demands to provide funding for constructions to continue,” he said.
And this is stipulated Under the Memorandum of Agreement as signed between the Government and landowners that they (landowners) would be the constructors of the road with funding made available under the PNG Tax credit scheme through the Department of Petroleum and Energy and Oil Search.
And for the 400,000 people living in the Southern Highlands Province, this opens up a gateway to all kinds of investment opportunities.
“There are masses of unexplored land waiting to be explored by outside investments, land made up of minerals and petroleum,” he said.
“It will cut down on costs for travel for the people as the only access to and from other major centres is via foot or plane,” said Mr. Mano.
He said that people usually had to trek across terraineous mountains just to get to other villages or aid posts which took them 5-6 days.
“They usually go to Hagen or other major towns in the highlands province to do their shopping and then spend more money on transport to come back.” He said.
There are eventual plans for a route to Kikori, Gulf Province, Malalaua and eventually in Port Moresby. The road has been constructed to follow the traditional trade route (Dobu) between the Highlands and Coastal villages.
It will also open up investments in the Eastern Australian market for the people of the coastal, Kikori to the highlands.
“Our labour is cheap and all our organic products can compete effectively with their market,” he said.
At a gathering of at least 10,000 people in Pawabi village, people flocked with singsing groups from Kagua-Erave, Kikori and Tari and Mendi.
A total of 355 pigs and 11 cows were slaughtered as a sign of appreciation for the road construction which will provide the much needed services to the people.
Mr. Mano said longterm plans included a road link to Erave (already linked to Mendi) and then Tari eventually joining with Kikori and then Gulf Province via the trans national highway, Malalaua and eventually into Port Moresby.
“It is still in its rural stages and will need funding from the government to maintain it and we want to maintain” said Mr Mano.
The road cost almost 100 million to construct under the Government’s Tax Credit Scheme through the Department of Petroleum and Energy, the first 7 kilometres of construction, beginning at Gobe was given a total of 8 million kina with 5.6million through OilSearch providing funding for the next 5kilometres and another tenkilometres costing 5.6 million and 30million kina respectively.
So far with the funding made available, the company has constructed a total of 52 kilometres of road into Sebirigi village with 10kilometres yet to be completed.
“Oil Search is providing 45 million kina to continue construction into Pawabi village and we expect to be finished by October,” he said.
This initiative taken by the locals themselves, not only will develop Southern Highlands but will have adverse economical effects in the country as a whole.
“I saw the plight of my people and wanted to help them, but also in the long run, the country will benefit from what we are doing” said Mr. Mano.
With construction to Pawabi near completion, this is just the first phase of the long journey, from the mountains of Southern Highlands province - enroute to the coast - to link so many diverse cultures with each other..