New road to link villages in Southern Highlands

TWO villages between the borders of Imbonggu, Nipa-Kutubu and Mendi-Munihu in Southern Highlands will soon have a road linking their villages, thanks to the provincial government.
The Shumbi and Poku villages had been struggling to have access to a better road for years until Governor William Powi paid a visit on Monday and announced to the people to build their road from Shumbi to Emb, Poku, connecting Kip to Suma and back to Munihu.
For the first phase of road clearing, Powi allocated K500,000 to four council wards – Shumbi 1 and 2, Kip 1 and 2 – and also included Emb and Poku.
Powi said he was pleased to see work in progress on the K4 million Munihu-Pinj-Sumia Road.
“Road networks connect people to essential services and the provincial government is considering investing more on rural road networks and improvement projects,” he said.
“Under the road and bridge infrastructure sector, many of the feeder roads in the rural areas have been given priority and improved to pave way for people to have access to health services, schools, markets and shops.”
Powi said he was confident that improving road infrastructure in the rural areas would improve the performance of local people to participate in economic activities and inclusive development.
He said potato was now a pilot project initiated by the provincial government and to transport them to the factory in Ialibu-Pangia needed road and he was doing his best to link all feeder roads.
“The provincial government recently announced K10 million funding for the agribusiness group, I want people to involve in small and medium enterprise and the ongoing potato project,” he said.
Powi also announced K4 million to improve the Munihu station and local level government chamber.
Project officer Dennis Mongea, who visited the K4 million Munihu-Pinj-Sumia Road, confirmed that work was in progress.
The contract has awarded Gravity Engineering Limited, a local contractor to support small-medium enterprise activities in the province.