In his third visit to East New Britain Province, Prime Minister James Marape officially opened two bridges in the West Pomio LLG of Pomio District on Friday, September 29th.
These two bridges were the 84-metre Toto Bridge and Unung Bridge, which is about 100 metres in length. Both bridges are located within the West Pomio LLG and are about 8 kilometres apart, with Unung furthest to the border of the two LLGs of West and Central Pomio.
The PM was accompanied by National Ministers Renbo Paita, Solan Mirisim and Joe Sungi to the district headquarters to launch the bridges and the ENB Provincial Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2023-2033.
PM Marape commended the leadership of Pomio MP, Elias Kapavore, and East New Britain Governor, Michael Marum, and the partnership created between them.
Local MP, Kapavore, said: “We want to thank the national government for helping us to build and complete the 84-metre Toto Bridge within a year. It cost K6.4m and we got support from the national government through National Planning, the Log Export Development Levy (LEDL) and the ENB provincial government.”
Meantime, PM Marape also made other commitments to the district.
He announced funding support that included K5 million for the purchase of the MV Pomio 2 vessel, which costs K5.7 million.
The planned launching of the vessel has been deferred.
The five Bailey bridges for the district are worth between K30m to K40m, while the Jacquinot Bay airstrip upgrading is included in the second phase of the Civil Aviation Development Investment Program (CADIP), with a funding support of K3m from the national government.
“The national government will provide support to the new Pomio district level 4 hospital, while there will be a funding allocation of K20m each for the next 4 years, for road construction along the south coast to complement the bridges constructed, as well as K20m for the province’s agriculture development, of which K3m should be allocated to Pomio District for the coffee factory in next year’s budget,” the PM said.
