State of City Bus Station Worsens
Lautoka Residents and Ratepayers Association president Narayan Reddy says the deteriorating state of the Lautoka Bus Station has been an ongoing issue for the past 12 years.
“The municipal council has always applied band aid solutions on that bus station. This is something like what the contractors for Fiji Roads Authority do now. They will put gravel in the potholes, and then the gravel will come out during the rainy season,” he claimed. “With the buses coming in and out every day you will see that patch coming out again.
“This is wet weather so you don’t have that much dust, but soon as it’s dry season, that dust from the bus station comes into the market. “We understand this cannot be done overnight because there’s also the issue of funding.” Nevertheless, the association has also taken an initiative to hose down the bus stand with the assistance of the National Fire Authority (NFA) and Carpenters Fiji Limited
that have provided necessary equipment for the clean up.
It’s not only the dust that affects commuters at the bus station, there’s also the oil spill from buses.
“If you see the lower area of our bus station, the pavement is covered with oil from the buses. So we washed the whole bus station and swept the silt and oil away. We are thankful to Carpenters Fiji, which helped us with the equipment,” he said.
Lautoka City Council (LCC) chief executive officer Mohammed Anees
Khan said “We have engaged an engineering consultant to design the resurfacing works, once the design is complete, approved and budget allocation made, we will advertise the tender for construction.”
He said the LCC would continue patching potholes weather permitting.
Phone calls made to the Lautoka Board of Special Administrators chair Tevita Momoedonu remained unanswered.