Minister of Works Jack Warner stressed it was a local contractor and not a Chinese firm, that was successful in reversing 33 years of infrastructural neglect suffered by the people in Arima and Princes Town. At the reopening of Fort George Road, Moruga, on Wednesday, Warner said he did not go to Shanghai or Beijing to fix the landslides in Moruga or those at Mt Pleasant, Arima.
The landslips have been an existing problem four years at Moruga and 29 years at Mt Pleasant. "One contractor, not in Shanghai, not in Beijing, one contractor was able to reverse the history of 33 years of neglect," she said. Also pointing out that there were no general or local elections in the air, Warner said the Government was fixing roads and bridges, especially those neglected over the years. Lutchmeesingh Transport Company, based in Princes Town, reconstructed the roadway under the ministry's Upgrading Roads Efficiency Unit at a cost of $6 million. The project took four months to complete.
Warner noted that a study by his ministry revealed that the country had 1,006 bridges, 900 of which needed to be repaired. However, he said, more than half of the 900 were in deep south while over 40 of those were in the Moruga/Tableland area. Saying that Moruga had suffered gross neglect, he promised residents that $44 billion, the biggest chunk of the ministry's road construction budget, would go to their MP Clifton de Couteau. Warner also promised that Gloud Road would be repaired at a cost of $12 million; and will bring an ease in the bottleneck traffic in Princes Town. He noted that major contractors would be inspected before they were given jobs.