Battalion lacking machinery

THE Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) engineering battalion in Lae’s Igam Barracks have many projects to work on around the country but the lack of machineries is hampering progress, battalion commander Lt Col John Wani says.
“For some projects, we have signed memorandum of understanding with provincial governments and district development authorities (DDAs) where the districts or provinces provide machineries and we only provide plant operators for the projects,” he said.“We need seven pieces of equipment for one road team. “But we only have four or five equipment shared among three or four road teams. And, of the 60 equipment we have, only four or five are in working order.”
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) through the defence cooperation programme presented five equipment (three Caterpillar backhoe/front-end loader and two Caterpillar skid steer loader) yesterday. “These will be deployed quickly to where the projects are in progress,” he said. Lt Col Wani said for the Fisika Highway project in Morobe, the agreement was signed with Finschhafen where the Papua New Guinea Defence Force provided plant operators and the district provided machineries. For the Madang-Baiyer road project, he said it should be completed in the next six months. “Two sections of the Madang-Baiyer road from Mt Hagen to Jimi River and Madang-Ramu had been completed,” he said. “There are other small projects which are yet to be carried out because we are down with machineries.”