Kevon Felmine

De­lays in the con­struc­tion of the $7.2 bil­lion San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin High­way means that Gov­ern­ment will have to folk out ad­di­tion­al mil­lions for Brazil­ian firm OAS Con­stuc­tura.Min­is­ter of Works Em­manuel George said al­though the cost over­run was yet to be cal­cu­lat­ed, the longer it took for the work to be com­plet­ed, the more debt would be ac­cu­mu­lat­ed.

George was speak­ing to re­porters af­ter he opened a re­fur­bished An­tilles Trace, San Fran­cique, on Wednes­day where he an­nounced that $9.2 mil­lion would be spent in the Oropouche West con­stituen­cy.He added: "We will al­ways be fac­ing cost for ad­di­tion­al claims from the con­trac­tor. The longer we de­lay the more it is go­ing to cost the coun­try."It is in our in­ter­est to over­come all the ob­sta­cles as we seek to get the high­way done as quick­ly as pos­si­ble."

Al­though work on the high­way is yet to ful­ly re­sume, George said con­struc­tion con­tin­ued on the Mon De­sir and Fyz­abad in­ter­changes.He said those sites were re­leased to the con­trac­tor by the Joint Con­sul­ta­tive Com­mit­tee's (JCC) re­view of the high­way project.He added: "All those sites which had been hand­ed over to the con­trac­tor for him to work on, they are be­ing worked on.

"We have some chal­lenges, par­tic­u­lar­ly from peo­ple who have been squat­ting and those whose homes we have to ac­quire."We have some chal­lenges in that re­gard but we are work­ing as­sid­u­ous­ly to over­come these chal­lenges."Once we do that we will be able to move fair­ly smooth­ly with the seg­ments of the high­way that are not in dis­pute."He added that Gov­ern­ment would con­sid­er the con­cerns of the JCC to en­sure that every­thing went unim­ped­ed.

He said: "We will be re­view­ing the re­port of the High­way Re­view Team and as far as it is pos­si­ble, we will seek to ad­dress the is­sues they have raised."We want to en­sure the high­way goes as smooth­ly as pos­si­ble and we want to avoid con­fronta­tion and dis­pute."We will seek as far as pos­si­ble to ac­com­mo­date some of the things the high­way re­view team has said.

"We have to keep in the back of our minds that a con­tract has al­ready been award­ed and if we stop mid­stream the coun­try is go­ing to pay and will not get a high­way," he added.