Transcript
SAVENACA NARUBE: Well in my view it is really bad, it is going to get worse and we unfortunately don't have yet a solution
SARA VUI-TALITU: Can you give me an idea of how bad using your travel time into work every day?
SN: Where I live I used to travel into the Suva city, the centre of Suva, it would take me around 15 mins at the most but it is now taking me like 45 minutes to an hour at peak hour. That is how bad it is and I live relatively closer to the city. There are some that live as far away as Nausori, which is about 25 kms out of Suva, and they take 2 to sometimes close to 3 hours to travel in now in the morning, that is how bad it is. It has mushroomed quite fast in the last 2 years so it is really bad.
SV: What is the cause? Is it the fact that there are just more cars on the road? Or more roadworks?
SN: The fundamental cause is the number of cars on the road right now. If you take the number of new cars that have arrived in the country it has increased many folds and I estimate about triple the number of cars and our roads aren't built to cater for that volume of traffic. That's the real problem. And why are there more cars on the road? Well I think basically because the government has decreased customs duties on second hand reconditioned cars that are being dumped into our country. And the number of reconditioned cars has outstripped new cars in the last 4 years. They now make up the most of vehicle imports. That is the root cause and made worse by the many road constructions going on into every major thoroughfare that goes into town.
SV: What would you say is the major financial impact on the economy, in relation to this traffic congestion? What is it costing Fiji's economy?
SN: Yes the major cost is the lack of production and productivity as you know and I have estimated that to around FJ$400 million a year and that is an under-estimation. That is the traffic congestion that rolls out to towns and in the cities. This number in Fiji, this cost is quite high. The second is the transport and importation of cars and that is going to be quite high as well. The fuel cost and the environmental cost of pollution and of course the stress that it places on the workers, the hours that they are away from home - those are the multiple costs and my estimation is simply based on productivity alone.
SV: Are other people complaining or is everybody just putting up with it?
SN: There are complaints. Every discussion I am into this issue comes up. But I do admire Fijian people for their tolerance.
SV: Any other issues for you in relation to traffic?
SN: I think we need to be more forward looking and have a proper long term plan and at least a medium term plan to make sure that any decision we make now doesn't cost us a lot of money. We need to be more forward looking.
