Work starting on road upgrades in Lae, says minister

Roads in four major centres including the Nadzab-to-Lae section in Morobe are being upgraded, Minister for Works and Implementation Michael Nali says.
Responding to questions by Nawae MP Kennedy Wenge, Nali said upgrading and sealing had started.
He said the 9-Mile turnoff to Bulolo and to Nadzab sections were part of the national roads.
“The government has made commitments for roads in four major cities – Port Moresby, Lae, Kokopo and Mt Hagen – to be upgraded,” Nali said.
“The vision of this O’Neill government is to make roads in the four major cities to four-lane roads.
“The Nadzab Highway is already included in this programme and the second section is also already being contracted and once funding is established, we will work on the 9-Mile-to-airport portion.”
Nali told Madang Governor Peter Yama that there were plans for road upgrades in Madang and he was aware of a company being contracted to do the work although no payment had been made.
Yama claimed that K10 million had been paid to a company for the Madang-to-airport road upgrade.
Nali said he was aware of a contractor who had been awarded to upgrade town roads in Madang.
He said the department had not given the approval to start work.
“In my list I have four roads in Madang but funding has not been allocated for this project,” Nali said.
“I will get clarification from Secretary David Wereh and he will investigate and if a company has received payment without delivering the service, then we will address that through the normal process.”