National MP Francisco Andrade has questioned why a road construction project from Mota Masin to Aimanu suku (village) in the Baucau Municipality has been abandoned and the government has still not taken any action.
He said the government awarded a contract to a company in 2014 for the construction of the road, but the project has still not been started.
“The community in the sukus are very upset,” he said.
He said communities in both sukus had been without a good access road for years. They were also affected by heavy dust and during the rainy season it was difficult for them to travel.
Since 2009, he said the general state budget had allocated a significant amount of funds to improve infrastructure annually, but in reality nothing had been resolved.
“A lot of money was invested to fix roads, but why hasn’t it been resolved?” he said.
He therefore called on the government to identify the weaknesses and problems so that that they could be fix, it was not good for communities for communities to be worried about infrastructure issues every year.
In response to the issue, the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communication (MPWTC), Gastão Sousa, said the government intended to repair rural roads.
However, in regard to the road between the Mota Masin and Aimanu sukus it would depend if the project was included on the list or not.
“We will repair the rural roads step by step, if not this year [then] maybe next year,” said Sousa.
According to the national strategic plan, all communities should have access to good roads by 2013 and the government is continuing to make efforts to achieve this.
