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A
fleet of heavy-duty equipment belonging to paving company,
Coosal’s, on Wrightson Road in Port-of-Spain, which
is being resurfaced. Photo: Keith Matthews
Imbert
says:
Ministry to repair about 300 to 500 roads monthly.
5,000 requests from public so far.
By
Gail Alexander
THE Works Ministry will spend $600 million over the next
six months to repair roads in poor condition all over T&T,
Works Minister Colm Imbert says.
He said the ministry, which was responding to requests from
citizens for rehabilitation of their roads, had so far received
5,000 requests.
And as for whether it’s an election gimmick, Imbert,
at the post Cabinet news briefing at Whitehall in Port-of-Spain,
added yesterday:
“When
we paved roads in 2005, editorials said election was coming...When
we did the same in 2006, they said election was coming,”
he said.
“As
soon as you pave a road, they say, election coming.
“So
what you want me to say? Is an election year,” he added
with a laugh.
“Before
election, during election and after election, we’ll
be paving roads,” he said.
Imbert said the Government would be undertaking a multifaceted
approach of dealing with main roads, highways and local
and neighbourhood roads this year.
He said the long-awaited rehabilitation of neighbourhood
roads would be done over coming months.
Imbert said citizens often experienced great difficulty
in trying to get work done particularly on roads, as it
was sometimes impossible to establish which agency was responsible
for which road.
“What
Government has decided to do is allow the ministry to handle
rehabilitation of all roads whether it has the responsibility
for them or not,” he added.
This will apply whether the roads fall under Local Government,
Housing Development Corporation, Caroni, the Agriculture
Ministry or Petrotrin.
In the first three months of the project, he said, Government
expected to spend up to $300 million on rehabilitation of
some 500 roads.
Over the full six months of the continuous project, Imbert
said, the Government would be trying to spend upwards of
$100 million each month on the work—making a total
of $600 million for the entire project.
He said $100 million each month would allow the ministry
to do about 300 to 500 roads monthly.
Funding will come from the $300 million allocated to the
ministry for such work for the year under the Public Sector
Development Plan (PSIP).
During a mid-year review which was upcoming, further funding
would be sought and the ministry expected to get another
$300 million, he added.
Imbert said the situation had created quite a challenge
for the ministry since many of the roads that needed work
were not on the books.
“There
are no reports of their conditions and what needs to be
done...We’re currently in the process of assembling
a data base on it,” he added.
He said the ministry was trying to deal systematically with
all the requests received so far and is also relying on
requests from members of Parliament and Local Government.
Imbert said the programme was limited by the capacity of
local contractors.
There were about 25 with the capability to do the quality
standards required by the Ministry, he said.
“It’s
simply a question of scheduling the work,” Imbert said.
“Having
said all of this, I now await the avalanche of requests
and I would ask the population to exercise patience, but
we do have the capability for it.”
He said paving of Port-of-Spain roads would also continue.
Imbert said work would soon start on a third lane of the
Uriah Butler Highway, from the John Peter walkover to Chaguanas,
plus a third lane from Chaguanas to the Caroni River Bridge.
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