Thursday, March 1, 2012

14 Mile not right for Central City

WITH the writs to be handed down in almost eight weeks from now, Central Province Governor’s call to move the headquarters to 14 Mile is honestly very laughable.
As he rightly stated, the Central City at Bautama Estate has been through long standing wrangle spanning about 15 years and interestingly with 10 years under him. So did he just wake up? Why now? K10.5 million is a lot of money and the governor does not have the time to over- see this and I question how one is able to build the headquarters with that money within eight weeks. I strongly call for him to leave this issue about Central headquarters until the new government comes in. If the people give him the mandate again, than he can go ahead with this plan because the new governor that comes in might have a better alternative venue than the two current ones as they are already within the vicinity of Port Moresby.
I say this because according to Port Moresby City’s current trend of physical expansion, it is quite un-realistic to build the Central City at either 14 Mile or Bautama.
We are not just merely talking about a city here, rather it’s a city that many will call home and spend many of their years in. So apart from just mere convenience in terms of accessibility, there must also be fare thought given to its geographical independency so that any riots, strike or protests that arises in Port Moresby do not affect the city’s operations.
So please be realistic, sensitive and thoughtful when addressing this issue. We want a city that we can call home and where we can feel safe. If the current plan to build the headquarters at 14 Mile eventuates, than it will just be another suburb of Port Moresby in no time and been flooded by anyone and everyone. We want a Central City and not just another nation’s capital. As a province we can’t afford to spend millions of kina now and realize in 10 years time that Central City is in Port Moresby again and start spending millions again to have a new city. So please my good governor, leave this until the new government comes in. Central City must be the pride of the province and requires full and thorough planning and implementation for full five years so don’t rush this. There has to be a proper feasibility study done to determine a site that is not only convenient to access but also geographically independent.

Wari Puana, Ensisi valley

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