SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Com­muters trav­el­ling from Freeport to Ch­agua­nas will soon be mov­ing on smooth roads.This state­ment comes from Ra­mona Ram­di­al, Cou­va North MP and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of the En­vi­ron­ment and Wa­ter Re­sources.Adri­an Acos­ta, pres­i­dent of the T&T Dri­vers Net­work, said taxi dri­vers staged a demon­stra­tion ear­li­er this week to protest the poor state of the roads fol­low­ing a pipe lay­ing ex­er­cise by the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty.

Acos­ta said taxi dri­vers and com­muters were fed up with the bad roads. He said com­muters com­plained of reach­ing to work late and dri­vers voiced their con­cern about the wear and tear on their ve­hi­cles caused by the bad roads.Acos­ta said dri­vers are ready to shut­down their op­er­a­tions at peak hours to protest.But Ram­di­al said moves are tak­ing place to get the fund­ing to be­gin the road paving ex­er­cise. She said she ex­pects work to be­gin by the end of Jan­u­ary.