By Meleasie Goviro – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The construction of the 9 Mile roundabout has been an ongoing inconvenience for people living there and those passing through.
Locals complained that the construction has largely disrupted their normal daily routines since it commenced about a year ago.
President of Moresby North East LLG, Win Lokalyo, spoke for his people yesterday, when he said the ongoing construction of 9 mile’s roundabout was poorly planned.
Mr Lokalyo observed that there were no plans for a central PMV bus stop or any concern for locals’ safety and wellbeing.
Chairman of the PMV Association, Jack Waso, said he received complaints from PMV and taxi drivers. They said at the moment there are no proper parking areas.
They feared there was bound to be accidents sooner or later.
What used to be a market place for locals was pulled down to make room for the extent of the roundabouts large diameter.
Whatever land space available has been deemed “illegal marketing area” by the police.
Mothers are forced to pack their market bags and runaway every time police come by, to avoid paying fines they couldn’t afford.
Youth of the area spoke on behalf of their mothers who depended on the market as a daily source of income.
Mr Lokalyo said when he brought these concerns up with the contractors, Chinese Harbour Engineering; they said were only following plans given them by NCDC Engineering Department.
Ravu Frank, Senior Engineer at the NCDC Engineering Department responded saying he wasn’t aware of the matter.
He addressed complaints about the market saying that wasn’t within his departments’ responsibilities and should have been brought to the community and social services.
He explained the roundabout as big as it was, was designed to cater for the large influx of traffic they anticipated as it was located in the centre of four major routes.
In addition, the bus stop they have included was their initiative so further complaints were to be brought to the department of transport.
Mr Ravu stated that NCDC Engineering Department strived to maintain the highest standard of quality output in every project and 9 mile roundabout was no exception.
He further stressed, that the Engineering Department was limited to certain aspects and was not able to solve all their problems.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UjnNTbEX_u4%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
