Fix the Okuk Highway

Source: yutok, Post Courier, Thursday October 13, 2011
Starting from the Southern Highlands Province, the Okuk Highway runs through the Highlands, linking Mendi, Wabag, Mt Hagen, Kundiawa and Goroko to Lae and Madang in the coast.
Life in the highlands, as the people know it today, depends on this 600km highway. Every day, trucks move produce from the highlands, including coffee and tea to the coastal ports while goods and supplies move to the highlands provinces, feeding more than two million of the country’s population and businesses, including resource projects in the region.
The region is also home to the giant Porgera gold mine in Enga, the gas and oil projects in the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces and coffee and tea. The PNG economy has depended on these commodities and resource developments to fund its budgets and, as the Government continues to depend on the revenue generated by these resources. The Highlands Highway, in short, is a national asset and is the lifeline of the most populous region of this country as well as PNG.
Built in the 1930’s and upgraded in the early 1970’s, the rugged terrain, tropical rainfall and high temperatures have made travelling on the highway tough on vehicles. At many places, whole sections of the highway have slipped into the gorges, rain water have washed away other sections, potholes have grown bigger and bigger by the day on, yet, many other sections. Travellers on the Okuk Highway will testify that this highway, once the pride of the nation, is in shambles now.
We have been told that it will cost about K2.4 billion to rebuild the highway and an annual budget of over K50 million to keep the highway in good condition all year round. The cost has appreciated to that level because for a very long period of time, the National Government had provided adhoc funding for much needed repairs to the country’s most important road asset. It may be true that the Government never had a maintenance program in place for this highway or all other major highways in the country.
This adhoc funding continues to add needless suffering, anxiety and frustrations to people and businesses in one of PNG’s most populous and economic regions. The plight of Ramu Agi Industries Limted, the sole producer of PNG sugar clearly demonstrates that business is not well on the highway.
Trucks moving goods and supplies to the region are facing, not only the daunting task on the highway but criminal activities. Communities living along the highway are helping themselves to the supplies the trucks are moving on the highway that the drivers cannot stop anywhere, even to relive themselves, for fear of being robbed. Trucking firms have reported high incidences of vehicle breakdown and attacks on drivers on the highway, while accidents on the highway have claimed many lives over the years.
We, as a country, cannot continue to blame the police for every crime committed on the highway. The police are doing their best but everybody is aware that police resources are stretched to limits at the moment, with the demands from the PNG LNG project and the general crime situation in the country. It is time the Okuk Highway gets the attention it deserves from the Government. The O’Neill-Namah Government must demonstrate its leadership in this matter now and give serious funding to this road. The piece meal funding the highway has been getting every year for maintenance is not enough. We call on the Government to seriously provide K1 billion or more in the next two years to fix the highway once and for all. This is essential and the Government cannot go wrong here.