Government cannot tar-seal all the roads in Fiji - Acting Minister for Infrastructure

There are hundreds of thousands of people who want their roads to be tar-sealed but the government cannot tar-seal all the roads in Fiji.

Acting Minister for Infrastructure Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum stressed this in Parliament today, and also stated that they need to ensure that those roads which are not tar-sealed are maintained regularly, which they are doing through a program.

He says the FRA has a program for the upgrading of all rural roads including roads in Vanua Levu.

Sayed-Khaiyum made these comments after National Federation Party’s MP, Parmod Chand told the Parliamentarians that he visited the whole of Bua last week and road conditions are in a pathetic state.

Chand said that a lot of money is being used for road upgrades, however the roads have been narrowed and the standard of grading is very poor.

He asked the government to explain their plan on fixing rural roads especially in Vanua Levu where a lot of students miss school as public transport cannot operate on bad roads.

In response, Sayed-Khaiyum said that there are many roads in Fiji that have not been maintained for years and there are many roads, bridges and crossings that were built to sub-standard or no longer can handle the current traffic.

He says the number of vehicles on Fiji’s roads have almost tripled compared to a few years ago adding there is more stress on the roads.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they do have a plan and they cannot upgrade all roads at once and they also have a limited budget.

He says new methodologies are used for building and rehabilitating the roads and they do not want to do what was done previously where roads were just graded and no drainage work was done.