Villagers Initiate Road Maintenance
Through their own initiative, villagers have conducted maintenance work on Dreketilailai Road in Labasa so bus services can continue and children reach home on time.
The men, mostly fathers from Dreketilailai Village and Lekutulevu Village carried out the maintenance work of about one kilometre.
We are not blaming the Government and neither Fiji Roads Authority because development takes time. The children are our future and hence all the fathers decided to use stones, gravel and soil from their land to fill up the road. Joseva Raiova Turaga ni Yavusa of Nakuka
Turaga ni Yavusa of Nakuka, Joseva Raiova, said last week when there was heavy rain for two days, the buses couldn’t drive through stage three and children had to walk to their respective village which is more than one kilometre away,” Mr Raiova said.
“For some it takes more than two
hours walking under the rain since there is a hill to cross over.”
They do not blame the bus company because the road condition on the hill was bad, posing many risks. “We are not blaming the Government and neither Fiji Roads Authority because development takes time,” he said.
“The children are our future and hence all the fathers decided to use stones, gravel and soil from their
land to fill up the road.”
He thanked villagers for using their transport to carry out the maintenance work which took a day.
Children from these villages attend Boubale Primary School, Bulileka Primary School, Bulileka College and some schools in Labasa Town.
Dalip Chand and Son Pte Limited general manager, Rajneil Chandra,
said whenever the road condition deteriorates the bus driver can’t drive through stage three .
All passengers have to get off and walk home.
“Whenever this happens we take photos of the road and send it to the FRA northern manager informing about the condition and request for it to be fixed,” Mr Chandra said. “As a service provider we are also affected and even with a temporary fix whenever there is rainy weather the condition remains the same.”
Fiji Roads Authority chief executive officer, Kamal Prasad, said Dreketilailai Road was part of FRA’s maintenance work programme for next month while it tries its best to attend to those priority one sections within the next two weeks.