Philemon presents heavy equipment for roads

LAST Friday Lae MP Bart Philemon handed  Lae city council some heavy equipment (pictured) to fix many of deteriorating roads in Lae city.
The equipment, bought for more than K3 million, included a motor grader, a roller, a backhoe, a front-end loader, two tractors, two slashers, two 10-cubic metre dump trucks, one 8- tonne truck, two  2-tonne dump trucks and two water trucks.
This will be a huge boost and will greatly assist the city councils efforts in trying to maintain the city’s roads which had through the years reluctantly adopted the name. “pot hole city”.
Mr Philemon said it was not his intention to make an official handover ceremony, however, he felt it was necessary as there has been much controversy over the situation of the Lae roads.
According to a report submitted to Mr Philemon by Torricelli Consultancy Ltd, a total of K16 million is required every year to maintain Lae roads, drainage, street lights, bus stop shelters and grass cutting.
Mr Philemon said that this report was presented to the provincial government in 1999, however, nothing had been done by the provincial government to meet this target to date.
Due to the urgency and controversy of the Lae roads, the joint district planning and budget priorities committee with the Lae district administration, headed by administrator Buds Botike and assisted by district treasurer Dominic Manua, decided to buy the heavy equipment as this would be a better investment to the long term sustainability of road maintenance, Mr Philemon said.