Road funds injection timely

WE keep on harping about this issue but that is only because although many people take this for granted roads are a key component of development in any country.
In Papua New Guinea, the people have always been at a disadvantage because of the lack of a complete road network to link up the provinces and regions on the mainland and on the major islands.
That is why the news that the Highlands Highway, arguably the nation’s most important road, which will be upgraded
to the tune of K3.14 billion is
not just welcomed news, it is timely.
But the Highlands Highway is not the only arterial route that will benefit from the significant infrastructural funding from the Asia Development Bank; there are three other roads that will get massive and much needed facelifts.
The Madang-Ramu Road, Sepik Highway, Buluminski Highway and the New Britain Highway are the major roads that have been earmarked for development, refurbishment and in some places extension.
These are the economic life line of the country with the completion of these highways and the expansion and improvement of existing ones set to open up the country to further opportunities for business, commerce and not to mention the introduction of services that have, up to this point, not been readily or reasonably accessible and available
to the country’s vast rural majority.
But with progress comes a price as Prime Minister Peter O’Neill pointed out in Parliament on Wednesday.
He said the ADB loan would be used to upgrade “unstable areas of the highways”.
He added that the bulk of the ADB funding would be the rebuilding of the Highlands Highway and qualified that with admission that the rebuilding was necessary because successive governments have had the rehabilitation of the highway on their list of priorities but had continuously had to revisit the road because of inadequate work.
O’Neill impressed on the need to make the investment in order to lift the road to a standard “so we don’t have to go back continuously and maintain the road over and over again”.
One hopes O’Neill was referring to major renovation work because the need for periodic repairs and upgrading will always be required as is the nature of infrastructure.
Perhaps what would have been more salient a point to make would have been if the Prime Minister had said after the massive injection of funding, there was a tangible and lasting improvement to the roads and furthermore, the means to maintain them and ensure a reasonable rate of upkeep was facilitated by having the Works Development given adequate funding to bear the yearly burden.
Hopefully Works Secretary David Wereh has impressed upon Waigani that fixing up the aforementioned roads is a huge plus for the country but maintaining them regardless of the costs involved was an ongoing concern.
Naturally, for a problem not to fester and become unmanageable, there needs to be regular maintenance and a check list that the relevant state body as well as the concerned provincial governments must adhere to.
This will come down to the individual provinces but if all along the Highlands Highway do not commit to the general and periodic upkeep of their sections, then O’Neill’s fear that we will be back to square one will come to fruition.
And depending on the quality of the work carried out, one might not have to wait too long for the damaged portions and rapidly deteriorating sections of the highway to rear up again.
The Highlands Highway economically is crucial to the prospects of the nation.
It opens up the north coast to seven provinces in the interior.
In terms of the economic out-put and potential, the Highlands offers goods from the agricultural sector (coffee, tea, vegetables including sweet potatoes, etc …), a large labour force (estimated million strong and growing) and of course, mining industry products (gold, other metals) as well as petroleum and gas resources which although primarily transported through pipeline to the south coast, has impacted the region with off shoot benefits to the communities, districts, and provinces where the commodities are extracted.
While the Highlands Highway remains the main concern at present, it will not be long before the other highways reach a similar status and perhaps even surpass it.