$66M upgrade of domestic wharf starts with King's groundbreaking
Thursday, April 21, 2016 - 18:27
A major $66 million upgrade of the domestic wharf in Nuku'alofa to be completed by 2018, was launched today with a groundbreaking by HM King Tupou VI, who was accompanied by Queen Nanasipau'u. The project funded as a part of Japan's grant aid will include the extension of the domestic wharf and the building of a terminal for passengers and cargo.
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Comments
The waterfront is a lovely
The waterfront is a lovely place to walk, but it appears that such a lot will be lost with this domestic wharf development. I hope it brings a visible prosperity that compensates for that loss.
Really grateful to Japan for
Really grateful to Japan for constructing this wharf. It will help a great deal to local transport and help with the movement of goods. Transport has often been compared to blood vessels, if there's a clog or bottleneck, places (like organs) don't get the things they need. Most of the goods Tonga gets from overseas come to the main island, some of those goods need to then flow to the outer islands.
So the main beneficiary to the new domestic wharf are the outer islands. This wharf, with additional improvements that we should work on, will get us to where: vessels are able to leave on time and according to a schedule, passengers are able to board safely and comfortably, goods can be loaded and unloaded without damage or loss...all these will help a lot. Of course, mother nature will always have the last say but that shouldn't stop us from upgrading or moving forward with the human side of things..
Benefits to improvements in domestic ferry transport are many, and best of it is that it will help the economies of the outer islands and also Tongatapu's. Farmers in the outer islands might be able to plan ahead to harvest in time for the domestic ferry and get their goods into Nuku'alofa to catch the boat to overseas markets. Shop owners won't need too much space for storage and can plan using domestic shipping schedules to make orders, would also be easier on the cash flow. Tourists and tourism businesses will also benefit with a schedule, where tourists can get to places on time for their flights or prearranged accommodation. Also this may lead to the creation of jobs in the outer islands, lessening the migration of our outer island brothers and sisters to the main island, straining public services here and closing or withholding resources from services in those outer islands.etc