Highway is sorely needed

THE EDITOR: The Debe to Mon Desir section of the Highway to Point Fortin will serve thousands of commuters who are now forced to spend hours in daily traffic along the SS Erin Road due to the intense commercial activities in the areas of Debe, Penal and Siparia. The vast majority of the people who have to travel (to work) from these area to places like San Fernando, Point Lisas and Port-of-Spain are eagerly looking forward to this long overdue development and a drastic reduction of the long hours spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic during peak hours and even during midday.

The stated intention of the Highway Re-route Movement is to “stop this particular highway.” The group is being led by an activist who is not intent on finding an acceptable solution for all concerned but is set on using any means necessary to stop the project by championing the cause of a minority of residents who stand to be affected by relocation.

While it is understandable that relocation could be a traumatic issue for families in well entrenched communities, other solutions could be found if there is a genuine desire for acceptable solutions. However this is only possible if all parties (including the Government) are willing to sit down and work out these options and solutions. For example, vast acreages of State lands are located near to these communities — why can’t these be made available for relocation? There are engineering and other types of solutions to all of the issues being raised by the HRM and even those raised in the Armstrong Report.

Given that the construction has already begun on sections of the highway, we now need to expedite the process of addressing the concerns being raised once they are legitimate and not being used as a pretext to avoid relocation. This must be done without entering into years of studies, the findings of which can then be disputed by those intent on stopping the highway. The HRM leaders know full well that if this happened, the project will be halted and eventually stopped because you can always find a million objections even in the face of reason

ERROL RAMPAUL

via email

Newsday