Ratu Dovi Road Nadera

Through the announcement of the new Budget it was noted that there was an increase in the expenditure.

A good portion of that will go towards easing congestion and increasing the capacity of the road system.

The roads have been massively expanded and upgraded to provide new levels of access and far greater mobility to the general public. (Infrastructure Service Sector 2018-19 Budget Kit).

I believe that it is an opportune time now to complete the Ratu Dovi Road from the Reba Circle junction up to the Laqere end.

This project came to a halt some time back without any explanation as the widening and creating double lanes would eliminate traffic congestion and we all believe that was the original intention. At that time the taxi bases were asked to move inwards to make way for the development.

The lamposts were marked and identified for shifting which did not eventuate. Every morning due to the bottle-neck at Nadera the vehicle queues can be kilometres long and also in the afternoon and the time wasted can be enormous. This creates many negative effects such as stress and is a non-productive activity for most people that may have an impact in the regional economic health.

The stopping and starting in traffic jams burns fuel at a higher rate than the smooth rate of travel on the open road. This increase in fuel consumption costs commuters additional money for fuel and contributes to the amount of emissions released by the vehicles and negatively affects the health of the people.

This heavily used single lane portion must be completed in this budget and I believe that it will delight the motorist and improve the traffic flow.

We would welcome a response from the Fiji Road Authority.