New h’way links Bulolo and Goilala

By JEFFREY ELAPA
FOR the first time, the former British colony of Papua and the German colony of New Guinea mainland will be connected by road.
It’s all thanks to the two joint district planning and budget priority committees (JDP&BPC) of Bulolo and Goilala who endorsed the trans-national highway
during a meeting in
Port Moresby last
week. 
The two districts who share common borders and cultures decided to construct a road to link them and to also serve the other Highlands provinces plus Morobe and Madang provinces.
Empowered by the respective joint district planning and budget priorities committee members, Bulolo MP Sam Basil and Goilala MP Mathew Poia announced the joint decision in Waigani.
They said the Trans-national Highway was cheaper than the much talked about highway between Southern Highlands and Gulf, much shorter, less expensive and would save the government a lot of money.
The proposed road will run through the Goilala district, through Aropokina into Tapini, then to Guari, Given, Eli, Bizoa across the Chapsmans Range into Kapang in Morobe.
The Kapang route then will get into Bulolo via the Ono areas, Ngusu, Sim then to Bairu.
The two members said the area needed to be opened up through proper transport and roads as they had been dead-ends to development since the days of the colonial administration.
They said many people living between the two districts had been denied basic government services and proper road networks to improve their lives and the proposed road should change their lifestyle.
Basil and Poia said the people had been sandwiched in poverty between the two provinces and suffered in silence.
They said road construction had already started from Goilala funded through the JDP&BPC and it would not be too long before the proposed road linked the cities.