A ring road circling the Nias Island is well under repair and half of the island is already connected with a road system, according to sources with the international quake relief organizations in Nias Wednesday.

"The island has 22 sub districts and about half of them could be reached by paved roads now," said Paul Johnson of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The next task is to step up road repairing, particularly in the deep south and north to make the island a whole, he stressed.

The March 28 killer quake damaged almost the whole road system of Nias, cutting the island of thousands of square kilometers into many parts.

"We have already dispatched the basic emergency goods to the disaster areas apart from the capital city Gunang Sitoli," he said, adding that with improved road conditions, a convey of 45 trucks will start in a few days to send rice to the south.

With the roads repaired, more local and international engineers will be sent down to the areas to make assessment of the remaining buildings for safety reasons.

"Many of the buildings are badly damaged and could not be used any more. They should be demolished," the engineers who had just returned from the places said.

"With improved transportation that would make more heavy machines and equipment available down there, the engineer teams would soon start a destruction-construction program soon," they stressed.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2005)