Opposition to road illogical

 CENTRAL Governor Kila Haoda’s opposition to having a highway linking Port Moresby and Lae is unfortunate.

Haoda’s fear is that once a road is built there will be a greater influx of people into his province and that will cause problems such as over-population and land grabbing.

Haoda envisages a province that will feel the flow-on effects of a congested city where more and more migrants will be forced to settle outside the city limits, in his province, building settlements and squatting on traditionally-owned land.

While Haoda’s reservations are legitimate, the need for a road connecting the national capital with the rest of the country has always been there. It overrides all other concerns.

If Haoda feels it necessary to build boom gates at the borders to check the flow of people coming into his province that would not be unreasonable but to say that there should not be a highway at all is not just illogical, it is anti-development.

He should appreciate the need for good roads as parts of his province have lacked this basic infrastructure for so long.

Papua New Guinea would have to be one of the few countries in the world where the capital city is not linked by road to any of its other major centres.

 The advantages of having a road network in the country that enables people and cargo to be moved by means other than sea and air transport are obvious.

Lae has become the country’s leading manufacturing hub and industrial port because of its location and the transport routes that it has access to, particularly the Highlands Highway which runs through the entire Highlands region – from Goroka to Wabag and Tari.

Lae’s other advantage is that it is in close proximity with the New Guinean Islands region (Rabaul, Kimbe, Kavieng and Buka) as well as the Momase region (Madang, Wewak and Vanimo). 

Port Moresby, on the other hand, does not have any road links with the Highlands region or the north coast. It has been a capital isolated from the rest of the country.

Haoda’s assertion that opening up a highway between Morobe, Eastern Highlands and Central will invariably see many people from the Highlands and Momase region flock to Port Moresby and Central may be true but it is the price of progress.

One would expect the airlines to be more worried by the plan for the highway given that this could cut into their monopoly, especially on the movement of people between Port Moresby and the rest of the country but it has been Haoda, who has raised the first objection. 

A road between the country’s two biggest cities is a must. The saving in transport costs would negate the reliance on shipping cargo between Port Moresby and Lae. It certainly will not stop the use of shipping, which accounts for the majority of goods moved between the two cities, but it will give businesses an alternative. If a ship takes a day or more to reach Port Moresby from Lae but the trip by road was only six hours at the most, the saving in time and expenses would be a godsend for businesses.

A road would open up that part of the country to development. Having a road link would ensure places along the highway would benefit. Stores, fast food outlets, markets to sell garden produce and service stations are some of the businesses that could be set up along the highway.

People living along the Owen Stanley Range on the Morobe, Eastern Highlands and Central portions of the Highway would benefit from having road access to Lae or the capital. Schools, medical aid posts, mine sites, agricultural projects, the local farming industry (cash crops), would  gain from having a highway.

One of the other aspects of have a road linking two places that were previously only accessible by air or sea is that people, foreigners included, will have the chance to see a part of the country that has not been seen before.

The government’s plan to build roads and link the country’s major centres is commendable but it must be done in consultation with the provinces which will have the roads. 

Even if there are problems that could arise, the need to have roads outweighs other considerations.