Marape launches road sealing

ROADS

**Road works at the Ambua, Hela, section of the Mendi-Tari Road.**

By MALUM NALU
PRIME Minister James Marape has been driving back and forth along the Mendi-Tari Road since 1997, when both towns came under the province of Southern Highlands, and knows it very well.
That was seven years after Kutubu and Gobe first started producing oil for Papua New Guinea.
In 2014, Hides Gas in Hela – which split from Southern Highlands in 2011 to become a province of its own – started producing gas for PNG, bringing in money which was used to build other roads throughout the country.
Hundreds of tonnes of machinery and equipment were taken along the Mendi-Tari Road to Hides from the port of Lae in Morobe for gas production.
The all-important Mendi-Tari Road, however, was neglected when it came to sealing. It was an irony that this road, which helped to bring in billions of kina in export revenue for the country, was forgotten when it came to Budget allocations for sealing.
In 2013, when then Finance Minister and his family were travelling along the Mendi-Tari Road, one of his daughters dropped a bombshell.
An emotional PM Marape recalled that his daughter, while they were driving this road, bluntly told him: ‘Daddy, you are Finance Minister and you haven’t fixed this road yet’.

The all-important Mendi-Tari link which has been neglected for years get due attention

“I was so embarrassed, in my own car, that my daughter could speak like this. That’s the cry of many daughters and sons, from Kopiago all the way to Kaupena, where oil and gas flows out to sustain the country.
“So today, even if the rain comes down, I’m willing to stand in the rain to ensure that this project gets off the ground.”
The Prime Minister said this in Mendi on Thursday, January 27, 2022, when doing groundbreaking for sealing of the Mendi-Tari Road at a cost of K300 million to be carried out over the next five years.
Construct Oceanic is working from Mendi towards Margarima while Ipwenz Construction is working from Margarima to Ambua (outside Tari).

**The Mendi-Tari Road takes in spectacular scenery. This is overlooking the Lai Valley outside Mendi.**

“Deliver this road with commitment and passion,” the Prime Minister told the contractors.
“This is the first time for us to do sealing of this road.
“I want Works Department to have an independent supervisor to supervise the work.
“I would rather have 5km of good road than 100km of bad road.”
PM Marape said the two provinces, when they were one under Southern Highlands, “had carried the economy of the country since 1990 through Hides gas, Kutubu and Gobe oil fields”.
“Today, the road from Poroma to Kutubu, 103km, is unsealed,” he said.
“In 2015, I had to go and ask landowners at Hides to reopen the PNG LNG Project, after they shut it down because of no sealed road to Komo.

**Mountain fall along the Mendi-Tari road in Ambua, Hela. Directly behind is the Ambua Gap through which planes pass before landing in Tari.**

“This section (Mendi) to Hides Gas is unsealed.
“We have started to work on these over the last two years because the need and demand is there.
“It (Mendi-Tari) is a road that is necessitated by the (PNG LNG) project, and to give value and a token of appreciation, to the Hela and Southern Highlands people who’ve been good custodians of the projects that continue to bless our country.
“I thank the people for their patience for the last 30 years since oil and gas started flowing.
“I am very pleased to be here today to launch something that is very close to my heart.”
The Mendi-Tari Road passes through some of the most-rugged and spectacular terrain in the country with massive untapped potential for agriculture and tourism.
The setback, however, has been continuous law-and-order problems along the road.
PM Marape appealed to the people living along the road, crucial for delivery of goods and services, not to cause trouble for users.

Malum Nalu works with the Office of the Prime Minister