Bridge project left idle for 4 years, mayor says

By MICHAEL PHILIP
THE ground-breaking ceremony was done nearly four years but until now, there is no sign of the planned overhead bridge that was supposed to be built in Kokopo to connect the main market and K-Central supermarket.
The ground-breaking was done in 2018 by former prime minister Peter O’Neill and East New Britain Governor Nakikus Konga.
Kokopo mayor Isidor Bonga said the overhead bridge had cost the Kokopo-Vunamami urban local level government (KVULLG) a big sum of money for the designing, planning and awareness but since then, nothing had been done and the project had been left idle.
“The man behind this project is former prime minister Peter O’Neill and we’ve seen his commitment towards this project in 2018, but it faded along the way,” he said.
“This shows a lack of proper negotiation when dealing with such co-funded projects between interested investors and the Government.”
Bonga said Kokopo-Vunamami had completed all the necessary process to allow the project to begin but the private investor, with the Government, fail to fund the project.
He said Konga had turned a blind eye towards the project.
“Who knows if the Government had to pay mobilisation funds to the contractor at that time,” he said.
“They should have kept those funds for other investments.
“I have completed my part and it’s now at the national level, so our good governor is the right person to continue pushing for this project at his level because he assisted Peter O’Neill during the ground-breaking ceremony and he recommended the private investor to build the overhead bridge.”
Meanwhile, several outstanding projects in the province is yet to be completed.
They include the East New Britain civic centre, Kokopo city sewerage system and Tokua-Kokopo re-development economic corridor.