27 Mar 2008

Papua New Guinea's Northern Province calls on government to fix roads

11:00 am on 27 March 2008

People in Papua New Guinea's Northern Province are calling on the national government to divert works on national roads to smaller ones devastated by floods last year.

The roadworks in Popondetta are funded by the World Bank.

The Post Courier quotes the people's representative Elijah Kaiai as saying that the rehabilitation of national highways is unnecessary.

He says officials should be focusing on smaller roads instead to help bring normalcy to people in the rural areas.

The provincial works manager, Lalio Erasi, says under the World Bank funding guidelines the funds are meant for national roads and cannot be diverted to smaller roads.