The new Secondary Road and Rehabilitation Company will fall under Minister Faris Al-Rawi in the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government.
The new company has not yet been registered and does not have any board members appointed, but $100 million has been allocated to "capitalise and establish it."
Finance Minister Colm Imbert was grilled about the new company on Friday during the Standing Finance Committee to discuss the $3 billion variations to the budget as part of the allocations. He was asked about the new company and the multi-million-dollar allocation but provided no answers.
He confirmed that the company was not yet registered or assigned to any ministry, and that the Prime Minister was responsible for that assignment.
When pressed for clarification about it not being assigned, Imbert said, "I did not say that, I said it was a matter for the Prime Minister."
Currently, secondary road works fall to three organisations–the Rural Development Company and the regional corporations under the Ministry of Local Government, and the Programme of Upgrading Road Efficiency (PURE) under the Ministry of Works. When asked about the new company and its scope, Imbert could provide no new information and repeated that the new company was to "rehabilitate and improve secondary roads."
According to the Public Sector Investment Programme in 2021 some $736.2 million was invested in the roads and bridges infrastructure throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
Further, the Road Construction/Major Road Rehabilitation Programme executed by the PURE Unit utilised the sum of $74.9 million for the rehabilitation of several sections of roadways across Trinidad.
Last year, during his contribution to the budget debate, Minister of Works Rohan Sinanan said that some $40 million was allocated to repair secondary, minor, agricultural and forestry access roads across the country.