BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
MINISTRY of Infrastructure Development’s (MID) Director of Central Projects Implementation Unit (CPIU) Harry Rini confirms that the city road works falls within their jurisdiction.
Rini said this in response to accusation from public to a recent article on City Mayor Andrew Mua who said that the responsibility for road improvement and maintenance belongs to MID.
The Mayor had been accused of shirking responsibility and pushing the blame on MID regarding road works in Honiara.
Mua had, in the article, responded to calls by public for the Honiara City Council (HCC) to improve and do maintenance work on the roads in Honiara.
He clarified that HCC is only responsible for licensing or giving authorisation to businesses wishing to operate in Honiara.
Rini, in defence of the City Mayor, says, “Now there are sometimes reports that are not consistent making people confused but yes I can confirm that the responsibility for addressing the conditions of the roads in Honiara falls back on MID as the ministry responsible.”
The CPIU Director did not deny the fact that bus operators have also complained to them over the road conditions after the short routes were enforced.
“It is because of the roads conditions are why they decided on making this complaints but it is our responsibility,” said Rini.
He admits that the roads in Honiara are in a bad state, and that immediate measures need to be taken to address this problem.
“Currently what JICA is doing in construction along the roads of Honiara will really relieve a lot of problems faced on the main road.
“This project on phase one (1) will be completed by the end of this year. On the other phase we are currently discussing on with JICA will start off from where phase one is completed, going all the way reaching Henderson Airport. So we will have a better main road when it comes to year 2019 and 2020.”
The CPIU Director said there are bigger plans coming up, but with the financial situation currently faced with the Solomon Islands Government stretching the budget, MID cannot really do much with what they have.
