Cr Ngati unhappy with Vura road upgrades

COUNCILLOR for Honiara City’s Vura Ward, Reginald Ngati has fumed his disagreement over the outcome of recent road upgrades at Vura 2 and 3, in east Honiara.

This was after the heavy downpour which hits the city since the weekend.

In a statement today, Cr Ngati said he is concerned and unhappy with the current conditions of the two feeder roads at Vura 2 and 3.

“I am very disappointed on the conditions of both feeder roads, which was just upgraded few weeks ago but is now deteriorating as a result of the bad weather in recent days.

“Now, the main Kukum-SDA to Kobito road is in a total mess from the debris and gravels that was used to fix the feeder roads just weeks ago,” the Councillor said.

While he is happy with the current upgrade of the Vura 1 feeder road under the CAUSE Project, Cr Ngati said the drainage is a concern that needs to be dealt with promptly. The same concern too needs to be taken into consideration for the Vura 2 and 3 feeder roads, said Cr Ngati.

“The type of work that was done at the Vura 2 and 3 road is what concerns me the most. It concerns me in a sense that, we have seen such a poor road maintenance over passing years but still could not learn a thing.

“This begs me to ask the question, since when did Honiara City benefited from such funding to do road maintenances? Is it an assistance that’s just been made available now or since over 2 or 3 decades ago?

“If it’s some sort of funding that has been made available to us for more than a decade ago, then it is obvious that someone if raising funds for their own benefits from the funding assistance.”

He said if the contractors are serious about improving the City roads, then they should make use of the funding opportunity to upgrade the roads into a certain standard.

In the case of the Vura feeder roads, the contractors should have constructed drainages before working of the roads, Cr Ngati stated.

Another issue he raised was whether Engineers that are assigned to look after the road constructions were present to check on the progress of the work or not.

“With how the constructions were done, it seems as if there was not a single engineer was present to oversee the work that was being done.

“Even an ordinary person can tell that the work that was done at the Vura 2 and 3 feeder roads were very poor,” the Vura Ward Councillor said.

Therefore, Cr Ngati said if the contractor was already paid for the now deteriorating feeder roads, it is going to be a sad story because the money is now wasted.

“Who knows if the contractor is going to be recalled to re-construct the feeder roads. If this is going to be the case, then someone is using the funding assistance to help him or herself,” he stated.

For the Engineers case, Cr Ngati said whatever transpires from any infrastructure development is the knowledge of any Engineer. That said, he called on local Engineers to always prove the worth of their qualification by help in improving the infrastructures in Honiara and the nation as a whole.

Meanwhile, Cr Ngati also called on the authorities that are responsible to upgrade the Vura 2 and 3 feeder roads to make good use of the funding privilege to help improve the face of his Ward.

“I wish to call on the authorities responsible to address the issues raised by making use of the funding assistance and come up with a plan to help sustain our roads for the next ten years.” – VURA WARD MEDIA

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