Semberigi road works an exciting development

 RECENTLY, Peter O’Neill visited Semberigi village to announce the funding of K40 million to start  road works from Semberigi to Erave station.

This road will eventually link  the highlands to the coastal district of Kikori. 

The people of Kagua-Erave and the eastern part of Southern Highlands are excited about the potential developments. 

The road could be seen as a backup for the deteriorating Highlands Highway. 

There is the potential for Kikori to become a major seaport because large volumes of industrial haulage which the mining, oil and gas companies can access will pass through it. 

All in all, the importance of the Gulf-SHP highway is obviously tremendous, and so we commend O’Neill and his government for taking ownership and funding this road. 

I would  like to thank Governor Anderson Agiru for his talk about the road in the early days of his political career. 

This road has been on his radar for a long time.

To see it become a reality during this time when a son of the highlands is prime minister is a good thing.

However, I am concerned about the project implementation itself that always remains the biggest problem. 

This particular road was started during the Chevron days in the early 1990s. 

I believe Oil Search Limited, with government funding, may have continued its funding and the contractor was or has been none other than the local company. 

I do not want to see local landowner companies playing politics with major infrastructure projects of this magnitude.

Yapi Akore

Kagua