THE Fiji Roads Authority’s newly-appointed board has submitted a comprehensive report for the 2016 National Budget that will be made public next month.

FRA board chairman Dinesh Patel said the authority was hoping for a budget that could fund some major and continuing projects in 2016.

“We’ve already made our submissions. Like every year, we’ve made fully comprehensive submissions to the Ministry of Finance in terms of what we can and want to deliver next year,” Mr Patel said.

“Hopefully we get all that we have requested from the ministry so that whatever we have planned in terms of roads, bridges and jetty construction, and maintenance can be carried out in 2016.”

Mr Patel said the new board was aware of the tough task ahead in terms of ensuring essential services were delivered to every member of the public, including rural communities.

“The new board was appointed in July and we have a tough task on our hands and that is to deliver central services of roads, bridges, jetties, street lights and essential infrastructure to the public.

“Some of these projects are short term while others are long term ones. For example, the highways are long-term projects and our job is to ensure these projects are completed in a timely manner.

“Sooner or later, the FRA board and FRA as a whole will aim to address issues that arise from areas where there are essential services lacking.”

In the 2015 National Budget announced by Finance Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, FRA was allocated $635.8million — an increase of $179.1m from the 2014 budget allocation.