Leaders call on govt to fix Lae-Bulolo road

Business

By PISAI GUMAR
THE Government is being asked to fix the road from Lae’s 9-Mile junction to Bulolo to improve safety and mobility and encourage businesses to thrive.
Community leaders Utupu Pakiabi and Ninga Yawa said that the road had gone from bad to worse.
“We are waiting for the government’s promised funds budgeted to fix Wau-Bulolo Highway to ensure safety and mobility of businesses and people,” Pakiabi said.
The highway is used by businesses and people in Bulolo and Menyamya, in Morobe, and Marawaka in Eastern Highlands.
“Landslips caused by creeks and craters created by heavily-laden trucks have damaged the road surface while some sections have been taken away by rivers,” Pakiabi said.
Pakiabi said the section from Pine Top to Wau had been damaged by landslides, forcing traffic to detour through the PNG Forest Product back road. That road, he said, is dangerous to negotiate, with logging trucks and machineries.
A Bulolo businessman, Bou Bisa, had used his machines to clear the worse-hit section from Pine Top to Four Rot.
The section from Kuranga Bridge to Lain Muli and Grace Memorial Secondary School, in Wau, is covered in shrubs with various sections damaged by running water on the road surface.
Yawa said Wau had several large companies like Giant Holdings, Vitis Industries Ltd and Jabanardi and they needed a good road to help them do business.
“We are also taxpayers to the Government purse so why is the Government neglecting to fix our roads?” Yawa asked.
Bulolo district administrator Tae Gwambelek said the maintenance of the Wau-Bulolo Highway, including Watut-Menyamya, is the responsibility of the Department of National Works.
He said Bulolo is one of Morobe’s commercial bases and it contributes to the government purse.