Khay: Lae road repairs costly

 THE maintenance of Lae city roads is a very costly exercise as it is happening on a daily basis, according to the Lae City Council (LCC).

Lord mayor James Khay said the LCC needed more funds maintain the roads and permanent concreting or sealing was the only long-term solution.

Khay said the national government needed to provide additional funding as Lae was the industrial hub of the nation and contributed significant revenue to the national purse.

“We’ve got money but the problem is that the money goes to patching up the roads which is a very costly 

exercise,” he said.

Khay said the Morobe provincial government budgeted K5 million for Lae roads this year but most of the funds have not been released.

He added that the Lae urban local level government had its own budget of K2 million this year for the city roads which comes from the LCC’s internal revenue.

“Whatever we collect every time we need gravelling and most of the money are paid to patching the roads, which are the dirty day to day jobs of gravelling and patching, Lae is rainy Lae, the problem is that nature takes its own course,” Khay said.