Member for Moresby Northeast John Kaupa acknowledges the fact of extreme shortage of site and serviced land, and the city’s unpretentious urban development challenges. He sees that informal settlement has been the dominant features of urban growth and expansion on both state and customary land, therefore he believes the way forward is by turning settlements into viable, robust and livable suburbs. Under the settlement to suburb program Prime Minister James Marape yesterday presented two state lease land titles to National Capital District (NCD) Governor Powes Parkop and Moresby North-East MP John Kaupa during a ceremony at 9-Mile. The two state lease titles are Subdivision of 14-mile Satellite Township -Portion 1221 on a land mass of 110.65 hectares and Subdivision of Farea-Bushwara and 9Mile Satellite Township on Portion 5548 C on a 61.2-hectare land. During the presentation of the state lease titles to Governor Powes and Kaupa, Marape urged residents to respect the Rule of Law and become law abiding citizens. “No tribal fight in the city, and all must respect the traditional landowners, the people of Koiari, Motu Koita and the people of Central Province who gave us their land,” said PM Marape. Mr. Kaupa who expressed sincere gratitude toward the Marape Rosso Government for the funding and leasing of the State Land, highlighted that the program would cost about K72.2 million and will take more than six years to complete the suburb upgrade. According to Kaupa, the initiative is vital to address the issue of land grabbing, illegal settlements and also to address the growing population in the electorate, which is estimated to be more than 450,000 people. Kaupa added that three key state landholdings under the Port Moresby North-East District Development Authority (DDA) will be utilized to accommodate this growth. He also mentioned that about 2,000 block holders on Portion 2709 will have land titles and more block holders in the district will become block owners through the settlement to suburb program. Mr. Kaupa further stated that the satellite township development project requires modern state - of – the -art infrastructures which are currently undertaken with the support from the National Government, NCD and our development partners. Important key infrastructure Facilities have been built and others are in the process of implementation especially the development at nine (9) mile Saiwara satellite township. “I thank the National Government for a funding support of K10million, whereby K5million was given already and the K5million given anytime soon because there is already a treasury warrant for it," Kaupa said.