Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner has announced plans to establish a Road Authority to bring all roads in T&T under one body. Speaking on Thursday at the commissioning of $11 million in roadworks at Fort Glod Road, Poole Village, Rio Claro, Warner said Minister in the Ministry of Works and Transport Stacy Roopnarine was responsible for getting the authority off the ground. "Right now we have some roads that fall under agriculture, some falling under local government, some even falling under community development," Roopnarine said. "There is a distancing of trying to get these roads repaired in a timely manner so what we are looking at is bringing all these roads under one body."
She said plans were almost completed and the matter would be presented to Parliament shortly.
Warner said work on the dilapidated Tarouba Link Road would begin next week. However, he did not give the cost of the project which would be done by Lutchminsingh Contractors. The minister told residents of Fort Glod Road that the roadworks were not an election gimmick, although the choice they made to elect the People's Partnership into government had started to yield rewards. According to the minister, it took 30 years for residents to get proper infrastructure, including removal of oil sand, resurfacing the road with hot mix, construction of several retaining walls and proper drainage.
"It only took four weeks for you to receive a new road," he said.
MP for the area Clifton de Couteau said residents of Glod Road had suffered for many years under the previous administration. He pointed out several roads and bridges in the Moruga/Tableland district which were in need of repair, including Cunjal Road which stretches from Barrackpore to Moruga, and Penal Rock Road, which runs from Basse Terre to Penal. De Couteau said there were 94 landslips in the district which had become hazardous to the public.
