ENB road a ‘disgrace’

 VULCAN road, a vital 3.4km portion of the Rabaul-Kokopo national road, has deteriorated so much over the past 15 years and is now causing difficulties for the travelling public, business houses and public motor vehicles (PMVs).

The East New Britain Chamber of Commerce has raised numerous concerns over the years and yesterday, president Nick Lyons described the Vulcan road as a national disgrace. 

“It is a national road, so the responsibility for maintaining it rests with the national government,” Lyons said.

“It is 19 years since that road was damaged by the volcanic eruptions – which mean that the reinstatement of the road has not been tackled by five successive governments.”

He said the poor road conditions added unnecessary time to the journey from the Rabaul wharf to Kokopo, caused expensive repairs to vehicles and greatly added to the cost of doing business in East New Britain.

“This is the same for PMVs,” he said.

He said Governor Ereman ToBaining Jr had told the business community that he would make Vulcan an all-weather tar-sealed road.

“We are most grateful to the governor for his interest in this, however, we are in doubt as to whether our governor will receive the cooperation he needs from Waigani to see the new road become a reality,” Lyons said.

He said for more than 15 years they have seen the various state stakeholders pass the buck from one to another. 

“The Department of Works blamed National Roads Authority who blamed Department of Planning who blame Finance who blame Works Department so the cycle starts again,” Lyons said.

ToBaining has been assured by the National Works Minister Francis Awesa that funding would be made available by the end of this year for the maintenance of the deteriorated Vulcan road.

The governor said last Friday that a submission was made by the provincial administration for K8.7 million to upgrade the road.

And the minister has assured ToBaining that K4 million of that funding submission would be made available at the end of the year for initial maintenance work to begin. These included the removal of silt deposits, cleaning of drainage and patrol grading. 

The K1 million cheque presented by Awesa a few weeks back in Kokopo was for the general maintenance of the 25km Tokua to Rabaul road network, whichToBaining said half of that money would be used for the Vulcan road project.

A source said the Vulcan section was tendered together with Toma-Ratunur road that is Toma Junction via lower Toma to Ratunur and the missing link of New Britain Highway between Vudal-Malasaet and Toriu by Department of Worksthrough the Central Supply Tenders Board in early 2011. 

However, only Toma-Ratunur and Vudal-Malasaet missing link were awarded but not the Vulcan section.