Locals upset over poor work on road

 THE people of Upper Mendi in the Southern Highlands are not happy with how a road upgrading project is being carried out.

They claimed that a local contractor engaged by the provincial government to upgrade the Mendi-Tambul road left it incomplete.

Raymond Walo, a community leader, said K1 million was allocated by the provincial government for the road.

“A new contractor only did side road clearance for 8km and left,” he said.

Walo said the people of Upper Mendi and Tambul in Western Highlands expected proper maintenance to be carried out.

“We want value for money work to be carried by some reputable company and not company that have no heavy equipment,” he said.

He said the road had been neglected over the years and gone from bad to worse before local MP De Kewan­u gave K500,000 from his district services improvement programme to carry out emergency work.

Governor William Powi chipped in another K1 million.

Powi didn’t reply to text message sent yesterday seeking his comments.

Walo said the road was the life-line of more than 40,000 people in Upper Mendi and people from Tambul in Western Highlands, who used the same road built during the colonial period.

“We need better road that will help us to move around freely and improve our lives and bring in other services as well,” he said.

He said the people didn’t want to live like in the past where they had hard time coming into Mendi town with their garden produce.