HIGHWAY HORRORS

DON’T give us an option, relocate us.

This was the cry of Shamlal Kalpatoo, son of Kaywantie Kalpatoo, 77, who owns a property right at the end of the new Curepe highway intersection.

Speaking to Newsday at his home yesterday, Kalpatoo said for the past four months his family has been living in fear for their safety and health, as well as battling with constant noise from heavy construction equipment.

Pointing at the wall of the flyover, mere feet from the house, Kalpatoo said it is too low, and a passing car could end up in the house.

“The wall is the same height of the highway. Cars and trucks passing all the time. How they can do us that? Look at how close the wall is to the house.

“I am concerned about the danger that goes with living here. Any driver who loses control of their vehicle, it can run off the road and end up in the house. The wall cannot prevent a car from reaching the house.”

Kalpatoo said if someone from the outside came and looked at the situation, they would be horrified. The only reason the family is in this position, he said, is that his mother does not want to be relocated because of sentimental attachment to her home.

“Please relocate us. Give us a reasonable offer for the property and relocate us,” he begged. “At the end of the day, no one can live here, because it is not healthy and safe. It is seven days a week with non-stop noise for the past four months. Do you know what that is like?

“Put us in a position where we do not have a choice but to be relocated. This is the only way I can get my mother to agree to be moved.” Kalpatoo said more than eight people live in the property, but they are helpless because one person does not want to be moved. But once his mother does not have a choice, the family can be relocated.

However, he said the Works Ministry keeps giving his mother options, an approach which is not working. He said since the project started, the family has been severely inconvenienced.

“Yesterday we were marooned inside the property because the water main burst on the only access road we have. We could not come in or out of the property. We had to make some noise for them to fix a temporary access roadway.

“Every single day we encounter a lot of problems coming in and out of the driveway, especially trying to turn onto the highway. We can no longer sleep in late, because they start work as early as 5 am.”

They can’t walk around the house without shoes because of the heavy dust. “Everything is covered in dust. Now the rain has come and we have to walk through mud. We have no privacy. Anyone in front, on the overpass, can see right through the entire house.”

He said the family could not continue living there because of the inconvenience. “We are having problems with everything here. If it is not the water lines, it is having access to the road, it’s the dust, the noise – everything.”

Owner of the nearby Adee’s Foreign Used Cars and Parts Ltd, Ramish Ramkissoon said although he was not given an option to move, he wished his business could be relocated.

“When the ministry started the project, they promised us an access road. To this day we have to be battling to get to and from the highway.

“Every time they use the road with the heavy equipment the water lines keep bursting and making the access road impassable. If I was given an opportunity I would have moved, because it is overbearing now.”

Contacted on the issue, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said he was not aware of any problem with the Kalpatoo family. He said there was a process and all the people the ministry had to deal with to get access to the land needed for the intersection had been engaged.

“I don’t think we would give anyone an option like that. Once we need the land we would have acquired (it). I do not know of any property that we have to get that we give them an option to stay or to go. The property that we had to get access to, we have already gotten access to those properties.

“Maybe somebody is not giving correct information. Maybe it is a family dispute. The Commissioner of Valuations is the one who is handling the acquisition and they will have a system to deal with the process,” Sinanan said.