Along the Magi Highway and into Rigo Inland 36.5 Kilometers away, the Ring Road Project is back in construction after being left for several years due to lack of funding.
The project is funded by the Central Provincial Government under the works program and began the project in 2022.
The contract was awarded to Koya Investment Company from Rigo. The ring road once completed will serve 20 council wards of North Rigo LLG, who have been suffering to access basic government services due to bad road conditions for more than 19 years.
Owner of Koya Investment Company, Biari Ubuna, stated that Prime Minister when invited to Boregaina in Rigo District last year made a an additional commitment of K27 million towards the project, however is not sure whether the funding was released.
“But I’m not sure whether the funding has been released to the Central Provincial Government. In 2022, the former governor of Central province, under his provincial works program, has allocated K4 million to start off the project at Sivitatana to Wiga,” Ubuna said.
“The contract was given to another company and they did cover 4.9 kilometres of the road, and they stopped because the funding was not enough. Later the provincial administrator called the local company, Koya Investment, to commence the project last year.”
“The full length of the road from Sivitatana to Wiga is 36.5 kilometres but 18 kilometres of the road has been completed last year by Koya Investment and then they stopped because no more funding was allocated for this project.
“This year, a little bit of funding was allocated so the contractor have started off with the project, however, the company is facing a lot of problem in terms of high fuel consumption due to the geographical location of the road. But the intention of the contractor is not about making money, rather providing services to the people,” Ubuna said.
The contractors are appealing to the Member for Rigo and Central Governor to consider the basic needs of the people from Rigo Inland and look into the Connect PNG Program.
“The real challenges faced in Rigo Inland is that people travel six to seven hours on a road to reach a place where they could have access to vehicle transportation. Pregnant mothers and sick people find it very difficult to reach out for health care services due to road access.
“Young people don’t feel like going to school because of the distance and the road condition, hence, most of the young people grow up illiterate. Most teachers refuse their postings to go and teach in few of the primary schools because the schools are situated in very remote areas. Most of the senior statesmen are from Rigo Inland, unfortunately there is no road access,” Ubuna concluded.