New footbride for Furimuti village

A new footbridge for the people of Furimuti village at 15-Mile outside Port Moresby was opened last Friday by PNG Power Ltd and  Works Department.
From the time the Koiari village was established, people have been crossing the Laloki River but access to basic services was hard to deliver without a road link.
PPL chief executive officer Chris Bais told people at the opening and handover ceremony of the Furimuti footbridge that the need for bridge was necessary as landowners had to cross the river during the rainy season every day to access services.
“This footbridge will now ease access and the worries of having to cross when the river levels go high,” Bais said.
“PNG power is a national agency of the PNG Government and we have the responsibility to provide electricity services to the people of this country and moreso to the rural population.
“This bridge cost PPL K280,000 and I would like to say thank you to the Department of Works (DOW) for assisting us to carry out this project.
“If they didn’t provide this assistance, cost would run into the millions. PPL is committed to ensuring maintenance and repairs of this bridge over time.
“It is a pleasure giving service but I also want to appeal to the community to look after this bridge.”
Works rural infrastructure programme assistant secretary Joe Roroi said it was delighted when PPL approached them to build the bridge.
“They saw an article in the news about a bridge that we did at Wau-Bulolo so they came and asked us if we could help build this foot bridge and we said it’s okay, just put some money and we will do it,” Roroi said.