Fuel station opens in riverside town

BUSINESSMAN Rajeev Prasad is focused on investing back into his hometown with the opening of a new fuel station on the Queens Rd at Tokotoko in Navua.

According to him construction work had started in 2018, however, because of COVID-19, everything was put on hold.

“So it was on hold and took us about more than three years to set up everything,” he said.

“Things are looking good and it’s a very proud moment for our family because of the place where I grew up.

“And it’s good for the people of Navua, we can see a lot of investments coming up in Navua.”

He said in December, Shop N

Save opened a supermarket in the town district, adding the company had invested a lot of money in the area.

“We have invested about $2.5 million into this station and it’s a good opportunity for people who’ve been travelling to Suva and we’ve hired a lot of people who have been working there.”

He said this was a good opportunity for these staff members to work in Navua rather than travel all the way to Suva.

“For me, at the end of the day, I want to give something back to Navua since I’m from here.

“So I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that things will just go as planned.”

Mr Prasad said he had spent more than 20 years in the fuel industry.

“Even when the borders were closed, we did not feel it much because people needed fuel to move around.

“But during the lockdown, we were affected as we couldn’t go to Suva and our volumes really went down.”

This will be the third fuel station for Mr Prasad who owns two Mobil stations and partnered with Pacific Energy for the third site.

Mr Prasad claimed he was the only businessman who dealt with two different fuel companies.

“I started with Mobil but it’s competition now,” he said.

“We don’t have any Pacific Energy around from Lami, the second one is in Korolevu, there are no Pacific Energy fuel stations in between.

“So that’s how it drove me in, I said it’s a good chance and opportunity for me to work with the Pacific Energy.”

He said they had big plans for their future as there was still some construction work to be done.

“And then the next thing we want to go into is we want to have a good cafe in there because it’s sitting by the road and this is the first service station as soon as you enter in Navua.

“So it’s going to be a break for all the commuters who are travelling from Suva to Nadi, this will be the first stop.”

He said another plan was to operate 24 hours as soon as curfew restrictions were lifted.

Mr Prasad added they employed 20 workers at the service station.