Road under construction giving new hopes to many

 By PETER ESOP WARI

THE Hiri-Lai road being built from Margarima, Hela, to Southern Highlands, will reach Lai Valley by December, a company manager says.

IPWENZ Construction operation Manager Gibson Palibe told The National in Mendi that 12km of road had been completed with 24 still to go to reach Southern Highlands. The Hiri-Lai Road is jointly funded by the Government and Hela provincial government.

Hiri community relations officer Robin Seng said the road had brought hope and optimism to the people living on the border of the two provinces. He said many pregnant women and old sick people had died because of the lack of road to get to reach the hospital.

“The only noises heard in the bushes used to be only of animals and people. 

But the roar of machines had attracted hundreds of villagers, who provide lunch to the machine operators,” he said.

“The people believe that once the road is completed, it would open doors for other tangible developments to take place.”

He said people wanting to go to Mendi or Tari woke up at 1am and walked miles using  embers to light their way and reach the bus stops by 7am.

They hid the embers in the bush and lit it again when returning home.