Tari town to have electricity

AFTER struggling in the dark for 17 years, Tari town will soon get to enjoy electricity.
  Tari-Pori MP and Education Minister James Marape announced this at the ground breaking ceremony of the construction of a new steel and wire factory for Kenmore Industry division at Piribu village in Tari last Friday.
Mr Marape said about K3 million under the National Government rural electrification programme had been paid to PNG Power to repair the fallen power pylons in Tari including the wires, so that Government offices, public servants houses, businesses and private houses would be lit up and get access to power.
Mr Marape said his joint district planning and budget priorites commitee had also allocated K200,000 as counterpart funding to light up Tari again.
Mr Marape in welcoming Kenmore’s decision to invest in Tari with the new K30 million plant, said the current MPs from Hela region like Governor Anderson Agiru, Komo-Margarima MP Francis Potape, Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP John Kekeno and himself were committed to provide political leadership, direction and build infrastructure in Tari and Hela for more developers and investors like Kenmore and international road contractor Curtain Brothers to come and invest and operate in Tari.
Mr Marape said the new factory would need power to operate and the commitment to light up Tari was also timely after the township was in darkness for the last 17 years following breakdown of the Dauli mini hydro outside Tari.
Meanwhile, Mr Marape asked the people not to sell their customary land but lease it for rental.
He said with the coming PNG LNG project, Tari and Hela would be booming with business and investors and there would be no land to develop if people sell land to other people or settlers.
He said he would assist Tari people to have their land surveyed, registered and lease it out to potential investors for developments under the 99-year lease agreement.