Community Services

By Alu Aluvula

NCDC has currently got going, major road projects in the city.

And this comes as no surprise, as NCD Governor Hon Powes Parkop continues his endeavor in making Port Moresby an 'Amazing City'.

Apart from the ongoing settlement to suburb upgrading project in place, some major infrastructure road developments to date include, the Taurama road, Nine to Fourteen mile road, Nine mile to Laloki road and the Gerehu stage one Waikele road.

Also under constructing is the Waigani Plaza, the new WNB building and few other building projects along the Somare Circuit in Waigani.

Many of these development plans, had taken shape since the beginning of the hosting of the APEC Summit in 2018 when the APEC Haus was also constructed.

According to Prime Minister, Hon James Marape, the idea is to open up more land for development and improve transparency of public works projects and the land ownership process to encourage the greater use of domestically sourced materials and local contractors.

So improving PNGs transport infrastructure is one key driver of construction activity here in NCD.

In recent years, the government has spent almost K356 million for improvements on roads, airports and ports.

But this has increased.

It has escalated to K995 million when the government was given a boost by the Asian Development Bank.

In August of 2019, the government launched PNGs new National Road Network Strategy of 2018-2037 to improve the country's historically underfunded roads.

This initiative aims to develop a natural road network based around five economic corridors and to repair preexisting roads. The initial project launch outlined totaled K21 billion.

The three phase budget was for firstly; K4.5 billion from 2018-2022, where 2309 km of core national roads that offer the greatest economic benefits would be constructed; secondly K4.8 billion, where 2502 km of national priority roads would be constructed from 2023-2028 and finally K11.8 billion would be spent on non-priority national roads from 2028-2037 covering 4639 km of road works.

However with the government's disbursement of a K5 billion stimulus package in response to the COVID 19 Pandemic, this three phase budget could be subject to adjustments.

Improving roads is important to both support developers and connect local communities.

Poor road access can hinder building projects and increase costs.

Better access will therefore help the government administration in its goals to build more affordable housing which will provide an ongoing stimulus to achieve this.

This in turn will also provide an ongoing stimulus for construction activity and will facilitate the installation of ongoing utilities to more communities including water and power and help the government achieve a targeted seventy percent of electrification rate by the year 2030 among other benefits to the city and national residents.

Hence more roads, creates more land opportunities to open up for buildings and real estates to thrive on an economy affordable to city residents who are the major beneficiaries with amenities bring provided by the government to its communities in this regard.