Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

Works Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds has agreed to meet with Dr Wayne Kublals­ingh and the High­way Reroute Move­ment (HRM) to hear con­cerns about the con­tro­ver­sial Debe to Mon De­sir leg of the Point Fortin High­way.

Kublals­ingh told mem­bers of the me­dia at a news con­fer­ence in De­beon Wednes­day, that Hinds called him ear­li­er this week and has agreed to two meet­ings with him.

Kublals­ingh's de­ter­mi­na­tion and a fast to have that leg re rout­ed, failed to get a re­spon­sive ear from the Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion. Fol­low­ing the­Sep­tem­ber 7elec­tions, he wrote to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­quest­ing a meet­ing in his bid to have that leg re­designed so as to elmi­nate prob­lems of flood­ing it has al­ready wrath on res­i­dents along that path of the high­way. The let­ter was al­so copied to Hinds and Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is.

Kublals­ingh held his news con­fer­ence at the home of one of the af­fect­ed res­i­dents, par­tial­ly blind wid­ow Jas­so Sookdeo.

Kublals­ingh called on gov­ern­ment to re­duce the height of the em­bank­ments built along the Debe to Mon De­sir leg. He said the em­bank­ment, built to sup­port the por­tion of the high­way that runs par­al­lel to Debe Trace, has caused wa­ter to re­main trapped , pre­vent­ing its ablil­i­ty to run-off in­to the near­by Oropouche Riv­er. He al­so called on gov­ern­ment to re­con­sid­er the HRM's Op­ti­mum Con­nec­tiv­i­ty Re­port, which it not­ed the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion re­fused to do.