Sinanan: Major road projects no 'election gimmick'

WORKS Minister Rohan Sinanan has said upcoming major road projects are no "election gimmick."

He said for the first time in Trinidad there are four major road and infrastructure projects happening at the same time: Valencia to Toco, Wallerfield to Sangre Grande, Moruga Upgrade Road, and San Fernando to Point Fortin.

"(For) all of them, contractors are on board."

For the San Fernando and Valencia to Toco projects all the contracts have been awarded, he said, for Moruga 60-70 contracts were being worked on, and the Cumuto to Manzanilla stretch is expected to reach Sangre Grande sometime next year.

He also said the ministry expected to turn the sod on the Diego Martin Interchange next year and the Moruga Fishing Port by the end of November, and the Works Ministry's portion of the San Fernando Waterfront Project and the San Fernando Bypass would begin by the end of November.

"So we have a lot of major projects. Couple that with the normal maintenance work.

"We have about 500 projects under the PURE (Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency) Unit (and) once we get the okay from the budget we will actually kick off on that."

He was speaking with the media on Wednesday, after the opening of Parliament, about Monday's budget.

Asked to respond to concerns that the upcoming roadworks would be "election gimmicks," Sinanan said the ministry had 14 projects in the government's manifesto and most would have started a year or two years ago. He said these types of construction projects do not finish in a year or two years, and sometimes go through an entire five-year cycle.

"These projects were promised in 2015. They have started, they are ongoing. If you want to term that an election gimmick, I don't how you could compare that. Because these projects were on the manifesto in 2015: they would have started between 2016, 2017, 2018– they are ongoing projects. And I think we are very happy that we can deliver on most of them maybe around the election time, before election time or just after the election."

He said a lot of projects have been started and some are expected to be completed next year, together with the normal drainage and road rehabilitation programmes.

"So we do have a lot of work ongoing in the ministry, and even with the challenges that we had as a country in terms of the funding, we would have achieved a lot in 2018/2019 and we expect to accomplish a lot more in 2019/2020."

Asked what he expected in Monday's budget, he replied, "The ministry will be allotted what the Minister of Finance can afford.

"What you can expect is, whatever monies is afforded to the Ministry of Works and Transport, we will ensure we get value for money, and you, the citizens, will understand that we are doing a lot more with less."

Asked if he expected to receive less money than last year (when the ministry received $3.546 billion), Sinanan said he could not make an estimate.

"It is all up to the Minister of Finance. And we have to understand that this country went through some serious reduction in the petrochemical revenue and what we promise as a government is that we would do more with less. And if you look at the amount of work that the Ministry of Works and Transport would have accomplished and the amount of projects that we have, based on the funding available...we did a fantastic job getting value for money."