Kabwum MP wants his district connected by road network

Momase

KABWUM MP Patrick Basa said during his term in office he wants to ensure all parts of the district are connected by road to the district headquarters at Selepet.
The MP, who is also the Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources, said this yesterday when purchasing two new road construction machines at Agmark Machinery in Lae.
The machines, an excavator and a grader, cost about K1.2 million and were bought using district services improvement programme funds.
“Most parts of my electorate are not connected by road networks,” Basa said.
“About 92 per cent of the population are not connected by roads.
“It (Kabwum) is a very economical electorate but it is unfortunate that it has taken this long to build roads.
“It is my aim to connect all parts of the district by road during my term in office.”
The MP, who is 12 months into office, said road was an important development priority for him.
Basa said if more funding became available the district would buy more machines for each local-level government area in the district.
Basa said with the absence of proper road networks it was very difficult to bring services to the people because most of the budget was spent on freight charges.
“We pay double because of high freight costs,” Basa said.
He said other government services like health and education could be successfully implemented if there were good road network.
District Works supervisor James Yakili said the machines would be used to construct an 18km road from Derim to Yalumet.
“We will take about three months to complete this road,” Yakili said. “It will be a fresh cut road meaning that it will be a new road.
“Work will very much depend on the weather up there.
“If there’s bad weather then obviously the machines can’t move so work will be delayed a bit.”
Yakili, who will supervise the work, said they would have four permanent technical staff, machine operators and a group of local labourers to get the job done.