Projects worth K90m get lands board’s approval

MORE than K90 million worth of projects have been approved within the past 10 weeks in Morobe province.
George Nemon, chairman of the Morobe lands and physical planning board, said yesterday that three of these projects were multi-million kina projects.
One is the construction of a K25 million five-star hotel that will be built within the Botanical Gardens grounds.
“This hotel will take up 3.72ha of the Botanical Gardens grounds,” Mr Nemon said.
The Botanical Gardens total land area is 26ha.
Submission for the construction of this building was filed five years ago by the Forest Research Institute, a division of the PNG Forest Authority.
Director of Forest Research Institute Dr Simon Saulei confirmed this construction, saying that once completed and in operation, the hotel would provide sustainable funding for the Botanical Garden.
“Though the Botanical Garden is a national function, we have not been given regular funding from the national and provincial governments to maintain the gardens,” Dr Saulei said.
The PNG Forest Authority would be working with the Steamships Group of Companies as developers of the hotel.
Dr Saulei said construction of this hotel would start as soon as the submission for rezoning of the portion of the land was approved by the Department of Lands.
The other multi-million kina project is a four-storey office complex that is going to constructed in Top Town between the post office and Vele Rumana building.
This building will cost K30 million.
Other small development projects are in the form of fencing, billboards and subdivision rezoning.