ENB plans to boost sports

EAST New Britain plans to boost sports in the province following the 5th PNG Games which kicks off today in Kokopo, provincial administrator Akuila Tubal said yesterday.

Tubal said the Games venue, the Kokopo Sports Ground, (KSG), would undergo a major second stage development with more facilities, including a permanent stadium, cultural centre, swimming pool and a training centre.

“So far, facilities built at the KSG have cost around K10 million,” he said.

“These facilities include a temporary grandstand, cricket pitch, track and field for athletics, basketball, netball and tennis courts and fields for hockey, soccer, Aussie rules and rugby union.”

Tubal said at present there was only one sports academy in the country – the National Sports Institute in Goroka – and it would be ideal if there was another in Kokopo.

“Some people may look at our facilities and ask what will happen to it after the PNG Games or whether it will be overgrown with bush,” he said.

“But the provincial government and administration is drafting up a submission to approve an authority to look after the field. Just like the port authority in Rabaul and market authority for the provincial market in Kokopo.”Tubal said the proposed sports authority would maintain sports and work closely with the national and provincial government to develop the Takubar sports facilities.

“We want to maintain facilities for future use and to develop raw talents identified in the rural areas.

“We have big plans but it depends on how ENB stages the Games so I am appealing to the people to bear with the provincial authorities as we will be facing a lot of inconveniences in the next few days.”

“The Games will require over 300 vehicles to transport athletes and technical officials and will cause problems for public transport in the province.

“We need your cooperation and we need to work together.”

Tubal said there would be no liquor restriction and appealed to the public and visitors to exercise responsibility when consuming alcohol.

Transport sub-committee chairman Samson Kakai said Air Niugini and Travel Air have been clearing a backlog of passengers, mainly athletes from other centres, during the weekend.

He said the committee was clearing vehicles hired out by visiting teams through their accommodation locations.“Two big exercises we are engaged in are checks on mechanical errors and utilising police traffic to do inspection on vehicles to minimise occurrences of traffic infringements.”

Kakai said the province would be experiencing the movement of 8,000 to 10,000 people.

 during the Games period and there would be disruptions to the normal road transport system.