Let’s fulfill Samb’s dream

The National Weekender
TRIBUTE

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
THERE’S a Chinese tale about villagers laughing at an old man digging a tunnel through a mountain with his bare hands and a stick.
The man told the villagers that if he died before the tunnel was completed, his children would take over from him and complete the tunnel.
And the late Goilala MP William Samb has partly lived up to his dream of building a road (between August 2015 and March 2022) from Port Moresby to Lae and unite Papua and New Guinea. However, there is a 60km tract of virgin jungle and mountains to cut through to connect these cities.
The road from Port Moresby ends at Rupila village in Goilala District of Central. And the road from Lae ends at Kasangare in Bulolo District of Morobe. The 60km road (Kasangare-Kataipa-Rupila) is also the missing link between Port Moresby to the Highlands and Momase regions.
This road will link the Hiritano Highway to the Wau-Bulolo Highway, Highlands Highway and the Ramu Highway. So this road will link Port Moresby-Lae-Madang (Momase) and Highlands’s cities like Goroka and Mt Hagen
The mountainous Goilala District is land-locked in between Morobe, Northern and Central. However, a French Catholic priest Fr Jules Dubbuy upon arriving in Goilala in 1913, used his engineering skills to cut arteries out from mountains to build horse tracks so that the Gospel could be spread throughout Goilala right to the borders of Morobe and Northern.
The late Samb was following the footstep of the Fr Dubey footsteps to upgrade the track into a highway which will not only link Goilala to Port Moresby but push down other mountains to further link Lae and unite Papua and New Guinea.
The old fashioned civil engineer Fr Dubuy dug a horse track out of the mountains using dynamites, wheel barrows, sticks and shovels and local labour. The track allowed small vehicles such as jeeps, Suzukis, motorbikes, tractors and horses to use it to this date.

Vehicles negotiating a river crossing along the Tapini Highway in the Central.

Samb, a modern civil engineer was upgrading that track also known as Dubuy highway with modern heavy earthmoving equipment to link Goilala to Port Moresby and Lae.
The late MP saw no need for expensive construction of new roads.
“We will just link up the track to the existing Hiritano highway in the Kairuku-Hiri electorate (bordering Goilala) in Central and there is already an abandoned logging track that was built 20 years by loggers and just upgrade that track. The Dubuy highway goes all the way to Onongae, Woitape, Fane, Tolukuma and Yongae at the border of Northern.”
These places are in the Woitape Local Level Government. The track is also inked to Tapini station in the Tapini LLG. From Tapini, it goes right to Momuomu in Guari LLG right at the border of Morobe.
There is an existing road from Lae to Kasangare in Bulolo district which borders with Central.
“So we are now upgrading the horse track between Tapini station and Guari and hoping to complete the upgrading. From there, Bulolo MP Sam Basil and I will work on the end of the roads in our electorates to link them up. And we are hoping that road will link both cities by the time we celebrate PNG’s golden jubilee by 2025”, Samb said earlier this year.
And Samb’s dream will be fullfiled under the National Government’s Connect PNG programme. All missing links throughout the country like the Rupila-Kasangare link will be built. As Transport minister, Samb also contributed his knowledge and talents into it.

Policemen directing the driver of a vehicle upon a bridge which needs maintenance.

And Prime Minister James Marape is also passionate for all remote areas in PNG to be connected by road by 2042 under Connect PNG programme.
“If this generation doesn’t connect PNG in 20 years’ time, then we have failed the next generation,” Marape said.
He said that 5.6 per cent of the National Budget (about K1billion) has been committed annually to fund road projects to link remote areas and to enable people in those areas to participate in economic activities and also to have access to Government services.
“In the next 20 years if we invest a total of K20billion in building roads under this programme, we are building a K90 billion assets base or economy in our country according to World Bank statistics. So Let us stick to the game plan and allocate 5.6 per cent of the budget every year uncompromisingly for the next 20 years and let’s see what our country will be in 20 years from today.
“What will become of us after 20 years; will we still board planes to fly to and fro Port Moresby and other centers in PNG?,” Marape asked.

  • Clifford Faiparik is a freelance writer.