Driving horrors coming to end?

THE EDITOR: According to a recent release by the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), TT stands to be financed to the tune of US$250 million for "resilient road infrastructure and resilient educational infrastructure."

I would like to focus primarily on the road infrastructure sector. CAF explained that the Sector Wide Approach Programme (SWAP) is allocating US$150 million of the total allocation for strengthening the resilience of TT's roads. This is to mitigate the effects of "coastal erosion, flooding and more intense rainfall patterns."

Is it too early to sound the trumpets on these initiatives with the hope that once and for all the horrors of driving through pothole-ridden roads, manoeuvring through massive depressions, risking human life to pass close to caving narrow paths on roadway, taking dangerous chances to pass over dilapidated bridges, and circumventing landslides will be things of the past?

It is no secret that in the past hefty allocations and taxes collected for roadworks have been misused, mismanaged or just cannot be accounted for by those in charge of such funds.

Very often the blame for road maintenance is shifted from one authority to the other and, in the end, nothing is done to resolve the situation. The Ministry of Works and Transport keeps up its usual rhetoric of blaming Local Government, and vice versa, and in the end road users are left standing (or driving) with their mouths open, or wondering where to get the money to repair the damage to their vehicles.

One wonders if those in authority understand how frustrating it is for road-users to have to daily face the inferior and broken roadways in TT. Many man-hours are lost because of the slow pace one has to travel at, thousands of gallons of fuel are burnt up in traffic jams, and the level of frustration and rage become a terrifying ordeal for citizens.

Imagine millions of taxpayers' dollars are being used to build a highway in the east that few would benefit from, and triple lanes are being built along the Solomon Hochoy Highway to ease congestion for others, but it becomes a nightmare for the masses to get in and out of their homes because of the very poor roads.

There seems to be a serious planning issue with the technocrats at the Works and Transport Ministry. Why are the roads in the north of the country maintained (to some degree) and the rest of the country has to suffer from such poor conditions? Is there some kind of bias in operation here?

It is high time that citizens demand better from those put into office to deliver goods and services to all. Do the high office-holders really deserve bigger pay packages, while the rest of the nation suffers?

WKS HOSEIN

Chaguanas