SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Hun­dreds of Com­muters are now un­der stress, fol­low­ing the col­lapse of the Car­oli­na Bridge at Car­oli­na, Cou­va. 

Heavy rains on Tues­day (No­vem­ber 8) saw the di­lap­i­dat­ed struc­ture fi­nal­ly giv­ing in and col­laps­ing in­to the wa­ter­course be­low.

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cou­va South, Rudranath In­dars­ingh MP, said he has writ­ten count­less let­ters over the past sev­er­al months beg­ging the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment to re­pair the bridge. MP In­dars­ingh said he spoke with Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al  Rawi MP, on Wednes­day (No­vem­ber 9), fol­low­ing the bridge’s col­lapse. 

Resident Seeta Krishendath, left, speaks with Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh at the scene of the crumbled Carolina Bridge. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Ac­cord­ing to MP In­dars­ingh, said the Min­is­ter ad­vised him that the bridge would be re­paired by the Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny.

The Cou­va South MP not­ed that a ten­der would need to be is­sued for the con­struc­tion of the bridge. He said in the in­ter­im, a bai­ley bridge should be in­stalled.

MP In­dars­ingh ex­plained the bridge pre­vents per­sons from hav­ing to take a cost­ly de­tour through Clax­ton Bay to leave the com­mu­ni­ty. He said a taxi may charge as much as $50 for a one-way trip, while per­sons with cars would have to spend an ad­di­tion­al hour "burn­ing fu­el" to get out.

He al­so point­ed out that the ab­sence of a bridge would re­sult in a de­layed re­sponse time by the po­lice and am­bu­lance 

Res­i­dents of the com­mu­ni­ty said they have been ap­peal­ing for as­sis­tance but their cries have fall­en on deaf ears.