K3.5m road upgrading work at institute begins

DEKENAI Constriction Ltd has begun work on the K3.5 million road upgrade project for the PNG Education Institute (PNGEI), formerly Port Moresby In-Service College.
PNGEI director Dr Zui Neoga told The National that the Government was now providing direct funding through the departments of higher education and national planning for major infrastructure developments in tertiary institutions.
Zui said work on the full phase of the sealing and drainage of the roads at the institute started three weeks ago.
“You can obviously see developments are taking place, our road component is very important. Once that’s done we want to look at other infrastructure.
“We want to look at the biggest expenses and so through the support of the National Government direct funding to colleges for infrastructure, we have our component coming in.
“We are prioritising our impact projects and kicking them in gradually with Dekenai Construction now into the third week of the project,” he said.
Zui added that after a long time, the National Government has allocated funding for infrastructure.
“This year, we have been very fortunate because of Government’s intervention for all teachers’ colleges, including our institution.
“So within one year, the Government has given us a huge facelift compared to so many years.
“They were given direct funding for infrastructure in which we have received our component and we have identified impact projects to benefit from this funding,” he said.
“We have to identify impact projects which are significant for this institution and I have marked the sealing of the roads as one of them.
“Those activities are catered for within that allocation and those are impact projects we are looking at to supplement the enrollment of students this year,” he said.
Zui said tendering was completed in November last year after going through the evaluation committee and the verification by the Department of Works.
The contract was awarded by the Central Supply and Tenders Board and the project began three weeks ago.