Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Even though Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the PNM has no po­si­tion on the con­tro­ver­sial Point Fortin High­way, MP for Point Fortin Paula Gopee-Scoon is sup­port­ing it, say­ing it will bring re­al de­vel­op­ment to the south­land. Speak­ing to re­porters at the re­open­ing of the Ce­dros Breed­ing Unit yes­ter­day, Gopee-Scoon said:

"I am 100 per cent be­hind the new high­way. That was a PNM project and we are anx­ious­ly wait­ing for its im­ple­men­ta­tion and ex­e­cu­tion. "It will bring in­vest­ments to the area and help with trans­porta­tion and gen­er­ate the mush­room­ing of busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ties in the south­west­ern penin­su­la."

How­ev­er, Gopee-Scoon had se­ri­ous con­cerns about de­lays and the method of fi­nanc­ing. She said: "They are us­ing $7.2 bil­lion to build the high­way and this is com­ing from the Trea­sury. I don't think it is a prop­er arrange­ment. It is bet­ter fi­nanced by way of a loan.

"T&T is in an ex­cel­lent fi­nan­cial po­si­tion in terms of ca­pac­i­ty to bor­row. If they ap­proached the In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank, it would have been much more fea­si­ble. I am sure the lo­cal bank­ing sec­tor would have been will­ing to par­tic­i­pate in a project like that." She al­so said the high­way project reeked of cor­rup­tion and mis-ad­min­is­tra­tion.

She said: "The scope of the project must be re­vis­it­ed and this en­tire of­fice of the high­way should be a more trans­par­ent one. "The peo­ple who are be­ing dis­placed, their lives are on hold. I am hear­ing about some hefty pay­ments be­ing made for prop­er­ties in Pe­nal." Asked whether she sup­port­ed the con­tro­ver­sial seg­ment from Debe to Mon De­sir, Gopee-Scoon said the con­cerns raised by en­vi­ron­men­tal ac­tivist Dr Wayne Kublals­ingh were valid.

"I don't want to give a view on whether I sup­port that sec­tion. The con­sid­er­a­tions must be valid. It con­cerns the en­vi­ron­ment and it is a se­ri­ous mat­ter that must be dealt with," Gopee-Scoon said. She said she was hap­py the Joint Con­sul­ta­tive Coun­cil de­cid­ed to stop works for 60 days.

Speak­ing to re­porters while tour­ing the Namde­v­co mar­ket in Debe on Thurs­day, Row­ley said the PNM had not tak­en a stance for or against the high­way. He added: "This is a PNM project. But there were ob­jec­tions to the route and pro­ce­dures which the Gov­ern­ment did not fol­low and this got Gov­ern­ment in­to hot wa­ters."