Look Back: A chance for ‘Ghost Town’ to shine

With electricity being introduced to Vaileka, the once forgotten shopping like centre, it was predicted to power its way up to the ranks of wellestablished town’s in the country.

An article in The Fiji Times on December 18, 1977, highlighted that the once dubbed Ghost Town of the west, would be able to have a chance to shine and make something of itself.

At this, Vaileka residents hoped for an upsurge in development to attract more people and put their town on the map

. Certainly, Vaileka used to have an eerie atmosphere at night, with no streetlights, shop windows boarded up to guard against thieves and its main street devoid of people.

One was more likely to hear a lone dog baying against the moon and hear the swishing of waves in the river which borders one side of the road or imagine shadows lurking near shop corners.

Now all that was changed, new streetlights given by local businessmen lined the streets and people were actually able to venture out at night to take a breath of the cool air which came sweeping in from across the cane fields, the town’s backbone.

Rakiraki district officer Subramani Pillay was optimistic that the coming of electricity would herald major changes.

In the forefront of his thoughts was that it would promote small scale industries such as furniture making, motor repair garages, black-smithing and some manufacturing.

More hygienic services could be provided in milk bars with the use of electrically operated hot water systems and other electric gadgets to minimise handling of food with bare hands, eliminating the risk of disease.

Also, Vaileka could at last get a butcher shop, which it so far had lacked, leaving people having to place advanced meat orders with shops at Ba or Tavua.

Mr Pillay said he had already received several inquiries from different quarters about setting up a butchery at Vaileka.

If the plans were to materialise, town folks would find it easier to get their seafood, apart from their meat needs. With electricity within reach of 800 people, 90 of whom were already connected, sale of electrical appliances was on the increase.

A combined stove oven seemed to be a popular buy. Into the attic had gone the small generators which were previously used to get power and out came electrical cords for appliances which were previously run on batteries.

Vaileka was now poised to shake off its lethargy and turn into a teeming, bustling center of activity deep in cane country, about 20 miles from the town of Tavua.

And to make it all possible were two squat 150kw generators which sat in a fenced off area about half a mile from the town, emitting a gentle hum which sounded like music to potential investors.

Another project which was certain to increase the commercial value of Rakiraki also was the start of tar-sealing of the stretch of road between it and Tavua.

The tar sealing, due to be done at the rate of two or three miles a year depending on availability of funds, had begun from the Tavua end.

This initially caused dismay to Vaileka folks, but to have begun from the Ra end would have mean major earthworks which would tend to slow down progress.

The chairman of the Ra rural authority, Shyam Narayan Sharma, summed it all up on the opening night when he said Ra had now been put on an equal footing with most other towns in Fiji.

The man, who laid the ground work for the project and then chairman of the Ra General Advisory Council, Ram Sami Goundar, said Vailek would now change its image from forgotten place and a Ghost Town to something much brighter.