ROAD infrastructure maintenance in the Kairuku-Hiri electorate of Central province will receive more funding to enable more people to participate in economic and rural self-help projects, Kairuku Hiri MP Paru Aihi said yesterday.
Mr Aihi said he had identified important feeder roads in Bereina, Koiari and Hiri local level governments.
He confirmed that project officers from the Office of Rural Development (ORD) had started making on-the-spot inspections of some of the roads to determine the scope of work and costing for the road upgrading projects.
“Early this month, an officer from ORD was in Bereina seeing for himself the road conditions and making assessment to determine funding for the upgrading work.”
Mr Aihi said he was concentrating on improving all feeder roads in his electorate because it was in line with his vision to provide incentive and enable the people to involve more in agriculture, cash crop farming, trading, trucking and other small scale business.
“I’m fully committed to ensuring that the road links in my electorate are usable all-year round so that people can have easy access to outside markets,” he said.
Mr Aihi added that it was important for the national and Central provincial governments to note that the Kairuku-Hiri electorate would continue to play an important role in feeding the residents of National Capital District.
“Food and other produce including betelnut from my electorate will remain important source of food supply and the informal sector.
The roads listed for upgrading in Bereina area include Waima-Kivori, Bereina-Rarai, Paitana-Rara (including the Biyotou Bridge), which collapsed several years ago), Oviropepana-Bebeo, Hisiu-Delena, Pinu-Manumanu and Kobuna-Bakoiudu.
Those for upgrading in Hiri LLG area were Porebada-Boera, Lealea-Kido, Tubuserea, Gaire and Vaivai Excess roads.
The Koiari LLG area roads listed for upgrading were the Iarowari-Boredabu, Sogeri-Doe and Depot-Owens Corner, which was a priority for tourism purposes.