WORK has begun at Navarada, Wairiki in Taveuni for the direct supply of power to some 800 residents and a few business houses.
Wiring works for the 75 homes in the Navarada community were completed on Thursday and wiring of business houses began yesterday.
A group of 12 men from the community is helping the seven-member team from the Department of Works' electrical division in Walu Bay, Suva, clear up land where power poles will be erected.
The $290,000 project, of which $10,000 was deposited by residents and the business community, is part of the government's Rural Electrification Project.
"We're expecting the posts and the power lines to arrive on the island in the next two weeks," project spokesman Laisiasa Tawake said.
"Work is well in progress, we are clearing land and cutting down big trees in places where the power poles will be erected, and we're working according to the areas that have already been pegged.
"The same goes in the residential zone where posts will be planted."
Businessman and managing director of Dayaram Fakir Ltd Champak Dayaram said it was a landmark project which the residents had waited for about 30 years.
"People have, in the past, used their own power plants. So with this project already progressing it means a great burden has been lifted off the shoulders of these residents and the business community," Mr Dayaram said from Taveuni yesterday.
"People here are quite happy with this landmark development."