ABG member requests road aid

National, Normal
Source:

The National,Friday23 December 2011

By STEPHANIE ELIZAH
AUTONOMOUS Bougainville Government Member for Eivo-Torau constituency Melchior Dare has called on the ABG to allocate K20 million to build a new Southwest trunk road.
Dare raised this at the one-day sitting of the Bougainville House of Representatives on Tuesday.
He said when constructed, the road would connect Bato static steel bridge via Kuneka, Katauri; Kaspeke to Karato, Torokina and to Northwest Bougainville.
“This is a strategic ABG investment initiative to open a corridor for potential economic growth for ABG beyond 2012,” Dare said.
He urged that K5 million be appropriated annually for the next four years out of the K100 million the Papua New Guinea government’s special support grant to Bougainville.
He said the impact project could be built in phases and jointly funded by economic investors of resources development for Southwest Bougainville.
“This infrastructure development will be a cornerstone for socio-economic liberation and advance investment priorities for the government,” Dare said.
He said with the high impact Torokina Oil Palm project progressing into construction phase, investment in the major Southwest trunk road was inevitable.
“This will ensure that the bulk of the rural population participates in business activities which provide access to markets and access to socio-development services that will improve the quality of life for our people,” he said.
His request was met with overwhelming support from members of the Bougainville House of Representative with a motion passed to have the matter referred to the Bougainville technical service
to work on.