Sinanan: Works Ministry to tackle all bad roads

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan says he he is not happy with the condition of local roads in Trinidad and Tobago (TT).

He said his ministry will not "pass the buck" face the challenges head on, by striking a balance in developing highways and major projects along with an aggressive maintenance of existing roads.

He said while many of the roads fall under the Ministries of Agriculture and Local Government, blame is always ascribed to his ministry for all bad roads.

“I am fed up of telling the population that road is not mine and that road is local government and that road is agriculture.

“I don’t think the population wants to hear that any more. The ministry has decided that if you are blaming us for roads, we might as well, take the blame and take the forefront in how we address this.”

The minister's comments follows sporadic protests across the country, mainly in constituencies held by the Opposition, over poor road conditions.

Sinanan was speaking at a PNM meeting on October 15. He said in the coming fiscal year intends to repair all secondary roads.

He said the Ministry of Finance has made available additional funds to fix roads such as Coffee Street, San Fernando, Camden in Couva, in St Augustine, Curepe and Sangre Grande, which previously fell under the respective local government authority.

He said the Finance Ministry has also provided funds to assist the corporations fix some of these major roads.

As part of its plans for 2020 and beyond, Sinanan spoke of the acquisition of a green asphalt plant to help with the environment and the use of recycled material to repair secondary roads.

Underscoring the devastating effects of climate change around the globe, he said TT is no isolated and priority is being placed on addressing flooding and coastal erosion.

While efforts are being made to install pumps and flood gates at 14 different sites, Sinanan said this may not be enough.

“Flooding is a phenomenon that is here and it will get worse. Our plan going forward, is to ramp up the programmes we have and (introduce) larger programmes that can cope with the global changes.”

Sinanan said several major highways will be completed in 2022, including the Point Fortin highway, access to certain parts of the Cumuto to Sangre Grande highway as well as roadwoks in Valencia, Moruga, Diego Martin, Morvant and Macoya.