Kali­fa Clyne

Twen­ty-four bus­es, de­signed to cater specif­i­cal­ly for the dis­abled, are ex­pect­ed to be avail­able to the pub­lic by the end of this year. Ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter of Trans­port De­vant Ma­haraj, the bus­es, which will cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly $11.9 mil­lion, will add to 100 ad­di­tion­al bus­es ex­pect­ed on the roads by next year. Ma­haraj made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing the ap­point­ment cer­e­mo­ny for new Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC) chair­man Dr Vin­cent Lasse.

Lasse re­placed Ma­haraj who was ap­point­ed to the po­si­tion of Trans­port Min­is­ter this year af­ter a Cab­i­net reshuf­fle by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Ma­haraj said a strate­gic plan was be­ing de­vel­oped to ad­dress the needs of com­mu­ni­ties in re­la­tion to trans­port of the dis­abled. Dur­ing yes­ter­day's cer­e­mo­ny, Lasse com­pli­ment­ed Ma­haraj on trans­form­ing the PTSC to a vi­able and ef­fi­cient or­gan­i­sa­tion dur­ing his tenure as chair­man. He pledged to con­tin­ue the im­prove­ments and said he would be guid­ed by his line min­is­ter.

Ma­haraj said it was Lasse's po­lit­i­cal back­ground which would be a key as­set as he led the PTSC board. Lasse is a for­mer min­is­ter of hous­ing, min­is­ter of plan­ning and min­is­ter of the en­vi­ron­ment un­der the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion. When asked his plans for the PTSC Lasse said he would con­tin­ue work­ing with Ma­haraj's vi­sion for the or­gan­i­sa­tion. "I will like to see the day when the trans­port sys­tem is so ef­fec­tive that peo­ple will feel at ease to leave their cars home and opt to use pub­lic trans­port," said Lasse.