$145,000 allocated for investigation into construction of Viti Levu cross-country highway

$145,000 has been set aside in the National Budget to enable Fiji Roads Authority to commence a pre-feasibility investigation into the construction of the Viti Levu cross-country highway.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this road will become one of, if not the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the history of the South Pacific.

He says from a strategic nation-building perspective, such a highway will significantly reduce travel times and will also unlock serious opportunities for our interior communities who have been constrained by the set-up of national infrastructure network.

He adds the highway will be built section by section, creating jobs all along the way and, once completed, it will be Fiji’s first-ever toll road, bridging the West to Suva creating far greater social mobility and a huge opportunity for commercial, industrial and tourism expansion throughout Viti Levu’s interior.

The Fiji Roads Authority has been allocated $376.7 million in the National Budget of which $362.9 million is for capital works programme.

He says over the next five years, the FRA is undertaking a capital works programme valued at $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, $115.1 million has been allocated for capital investment to improve and expand Fiji’s water distribution network and wastewater management systems.

Sayed-Khaiyum says these networks need to become more reliable, resilient, and capable of serving a nation on the move.

WAF provides services to some 772,000 Fijians nationwide and currently has 154,383 water and 33,190 wastewater active connections.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the new Rewa River Water Supply Scheme Project will now be completed in May of 2023 and this project will end water woes in the Lami-Nausori corridor through an additional 40 million litres worth of water per day for the benefit of over 360,000 Fijians.

The total allocation for WAF is $204.3 million.

The Department of Energy has been allocated $4.0 million to install stand-alone solar home systems in 1,000 homes in remote communities that do not have access to the main EFL grid.