Shas­tri Boodan

Taxi dri­vers work­ing the Curepe and en­vi­rons route are threat­en­ing to in­crease fares un­less the roads are re­paired.

Pres­i­dent of the Curepe-Short Taxi Dri­vers As­so­ci­a­tion Kevon Kurt Fran­cis, said tra­vers­ing the route has be­come un­bear­able be­cause of the in­creased num­ber of pot­holes.

Fran­cis said fares may go up from $5 to $6 be­fore the end of the year un­less road re­pairs take place.

Fran­cis said there are 30 dri­vers who op­er­ate the route that take com­muters from the area of the Curepe Taxi Stand to ar­eas that in­clude the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex to the West, The UWI in the East and to the High­way in the South.

He said be­cause of the de­plorable road con­di­tions dri­vers may have to cough up as much as $800 a month to do re­pairs to their ve­hi­cle’s sus­pen­sion.

He added that prices of for­eign used parts went up in the last two weeks be­cause of the tremen­dous in­crease in the cost of ship­ping.

Fran­cis said the as­so­ci­a­tion has ap­pealed to the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties, but cries have fall­en on deaf ears.

Taxi dri­ver Dex­ter Mo­hammed, said the dri­vers at­tempt­ed to re­pair some of the pot­holes with dis­card­ed ma­te­ri­als.

How­ev­er the re­pairs last­ed for a short while.

Mo­hammed said the dri­vers are will­ing to pro­vide the labour if the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion.

Kadi­jah Ameen, the St Au­gus­tine MP, said she has had dis­cus­sions with the dri­vers who are suf­fer­ing loss­es and dam­age sus­tained to their ve­hi­cles.

Ameen said “The roads are in a ter­ri­ble state of dis­re­pair, we have been ask­ing for at least patch­ing from the Tu­na­puna Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and they have been say­ing that they have no mon­ey for ma­te­ri­als. Res­i­dents have re­sort­ed to fix­ing pot­holes with de­bris and con­crete. The dam­age is com­pound­ed by WASA when they dig the road and do not patch it leav­ing more and more pot­holes. I have writ­ten to the Min­istry of Works ask­ing for some as­sis­tance for at least Evans Street, and they have not sent any favourable re­ply.”