Opportunities through New Britain H’way

National, Normal
Source:

The National – Wednesday, December 22, 2010

By ELIZABETH VUVU
THE proposed New Britain Highway will open up many opportunities for socio-economic development in East and West New Britain.
This was highlighted during the ENB provincial coordination monitoring committee (PCMC) third meeting recently.
An executive summary highlighted that the proposed highway was not only be considered as a catalyst for economic advancement of ENB and WNB but would also improve provincial reforms so that reforms in all areas of government service delivery were felt in districts and most isolated areas of East and West New Britain.
On the ENB side, the executive council recently approved the Toriu Highway routes as the alternate New Britain Highway from Malasaet to Toriu River, a distance of 46.5km.
Meanwhile, on the other end (WNB), the total distance of New Britain Highway is 342km to Bakada and Pandi River.
The proposed highway will now start from Kokopo town through to Baliora Road to Kerevat to Vunapalading and Malasaet junction to Toriu, then to Open Bay and meets the road to Kimbe from Bago.
The summary revealed that the
proposed alternative highway has substantial current progress due to the developer of the Toriu integrated project.
This includes the infrastructure component of the Toriu integrated project, which was now in progress from Toriu to Alakasam which is near completion.
ENB and WNB provincial governments will explore all opportunities to advance the provinces and their people to participate in growing their provincial economy, thereby helping PNG implement its medium term development strategy (MTDS) and the Vision 2050.
The highway will improve provincial and LLG capacities and institutional development at the sector level covering water, health, education, feeder roads and other vital areas.
It was also highlighted that there was a need for continuous awareness to landowners throughout the corridor of the highway so that people were made aware of the issues that would affect their land.