FIJI – Auckland may have a traffic problem – but so does Suva.

The former governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji is warning about the social and economic costs of traffic congestion in the Pacific nation, he believes will skyrocket if the matter is not dealt with soon.

Savenaca Narube said there are too many cars in Fiji – plus the roads are not equipped to deal with the numbers.

He said since 2011, total new registration of vehicles has tripled and there’s been a big increase in the number of reconditioned hybrid cars.

Narube, who is now the leader of new opposition party, Unity Fiji, told Radio New Zealand’s Dateline Pacific about the ongoing impacts from being stuck in traffic.

“In my view it is really bad, it is going to get worse and we unfortunately don’t have yet a solution

“Where I live I used to travel into the Suva city, the centre of Suva, it would take me around 15 minutess 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 kilometres out of Suva, and they take two to sometimes close to three hours to travel in to Suva in the morning, that is how bad it is. It has mushroomed quite fast in the last two years – it is really bad.”

Narube said the fundamental cause is the number of cars on the road right now.

“I estimate the number of new cars that have arrived in the country it has increased many folds – about triple the number of cars since 2011– 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 secondhand reconditioned cars that are being dumped into our country.

“And the number of reconditioned cars has outstripped new cars in the last four 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.

He said the congestion is having a major financial impact on the economy.

“The major cost is the lack of production and productivity – I have estimated that to around FJ$400 million (NZ$272 million) a year and that could be an under-estimation. That is the traffic congestion that rolls out to towns and in the cities. This cost is quite high.

“There is also the fuel costs and the environmental cost of pollutions 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.

He said Fijian people are starting to complain.

“There are complaints. In every discussion I am into this issue comes up. But I do admire Fijian people for their tolerance.

“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.

- Dateline Pacific/PNC