Nuku'alofa CBD remains a ghost town [1]
Thursday, February 15, 2007 - 17:38. Updated on Monday, May 19, 2014 - 19:55.
Photos by Linny Folau
Three months after the Nuku'alofa Central Business District was destroyed by a mob on November 16, 2006, very little reconstruction work has begun.
The demolition and the clearing out of concrete blocks, twisted steel frames and debris from the area was completed at the end of January before the restriction on entry into most parts of the CBD was lifted, allowing the public to move through the ghost town.
When our photographer visited the CBD this week the only businesses that had been renovated and were back in business were the Prema and Sons Store, Adiloa's Store, and the MBF Bank.
The businesses that are currently under reconstruction are the TCF Supermarket, a new ANZ Bank branch in the former Bhagwan Store, the O. G. Sanft premises, and the Hotel Nuku'alofa above the MBF Bank, all on Hala Taufa'ahau.
Carl Sanft, the General Manager of O. G. Sanft and Sons Ltd., said that he was targeting for the Hotel Nuku'alofa to be back in business by Saturday, February 24.
Meanwhile, a town plan for the CBD is currently being drafted by town planners from the Manukau City Council who will present a plan and a set of recommendations to the Tongan government in early March.
The Hon. Paul Karalus, a member of the government's Reconstruction Task Force said that the reconstruction of the Nuku'alofa CBD would start in April.
Paul said that the Nuku'alofa CBD comprised an area of about 250 acres, and its boundries were clearly marked by Hala Vuna along the Nuku'alofa waterfront, Hala Fatafehi to the east, Hala Laifone to the south, and Hala Vaha'akolo to the west. About a third of the CBD was comprised of residential homes, but 80% of the business houses were destroyed by the mob on November 16.