Member for Tari Pori and Finance
Minister James Marape has called on the people of Hela not to ask for
compensation but to allow the work of running power lines to go through freely.
He made this call in light of a
partnership recently signed between PNG Power and Oil Search to deliver full
time electricity services in Tari town.
“Tari town is now the headquarters
of Hela Province and has been without electricity since 1997 when the small
hydro serving the town and nearby Dauli Teachers College broke down despite
provincial government spending more than K5 million to fix it. Since then it
has not been running,” he says.
Tari town is currently being served
by a 1 megawatt generator that Marape set up in Yangome village in 2011.
This only allowed residents and
business houses to use power for half a day because of the fuel cost and the
lack of a user pay system.
“For the Hela people the first stage
is to light up Tari town, second stage is to access gas fuelled electricity to
light up the rest of Hela and the third stage would be to connect Hela grid or
power lines to Mendi and for access to electricity from Hides generation to
feed the Highlands grid.”
Marape has promised those who do not
interrupt the work of power lines being pulled through will have free power for
a year.
No comments:
Post a Comment