Gov­ern­ment plans to spend $1.27 bil­lion on road re­pairs and in­fra­struc­ture con­struc­tion through­out the coun­try, Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er an­nounced at yes­ter­day's post-Cab­i­net press con­fer­ence at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's. He said $750 mil­lion would be spent on in­fra­struc­ture re­pairs and $519 mil­lion on ad­di­tions to the Uri­ah But­ler/Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way in­ter­change.

He said: "The $750 mil­lion will be used to re­pair roads, fix land­slips and land­slides and for build­ing re­tain­ing walls. "The mon­ey will be dis­trib­uted across the coun­try to im­prove roads and re­duce traf­fic." Moru­ga/Table­land is set to re­ceive the most fund­ing be­cause of ma­jor land­slides and poor in­fra­struc­ture in that con­stituen­cy, he said.

Vin­ci Con­struc­tion Ltd, which built the re­cent­ly com­plet­ed Aranguez Over­pass, had been award­ed the two-year con­tract to con­struct the $519 mil­lion in­ter­change, he added. "The in­ter­sec­tion near to Nes­tle is the most con­gest­ed in the coun­try. This ad­di­tion will ease the woes of mo­torists who use that route," Warn­er said. He said those con­struc­tion projects would be fund­ed through lo­cal and for­eign loans. Warn­er said: "With in­ter­est rates be­ing as low as 0.69 per cent, it is the best time to bor­row. As a busi­ness­man an in­vest­ment in de­vel­op­ment is al­ways a good one."

For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan, who chaired the con­fer­ence, al­so de­fend­ed Gov­ern­ment's plan to start con­struc­tion of the $7.2 bil­lion, San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin high­way. He said: "The St Patrick area is one of the most de­pressed in the coun­try with an av­er­age un­em­ploy­ment rate of 26 per cent. "By im­prov­ing in­fra­struc­ture in the area, we can low­er pover­ty, boost the econ­o­my and ad­dress so­cial prob­lems."The $2 mil­lion al­lo­cat­ed for ac­quir­ing land for con­struc­tion of the high­way will be rein­vest­ed by those peo­ple so the econ­o­my will be boost­ed." Mem­bers of the Pu­bic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) con­tin­ued protests out­side the Prime Min­is­ter's res­i­dence dur­ing the press con­fer­ence. When pressed about the PSA ob­jec­tion to the high­way con­struc­tion, Warn­er dis­missed it.

"I have met with it on many oc­ca­sions, if it wants to meet again for dis­cus­sions, I am will­ing," Warn­er said.

Pro­posed dis­tri­b­u­tion of funds for in­fra­struc­ture works:

Ari­ma - $16 mil­lion;

Ca­roni Cen­tral - $23 mil­lion;

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la - $25 mil­lion;

Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral - $28 mil­lion;

Diego Mar­tin North East - $13 mil­lion;

Diego Mar­tin West - $5 mil­lion;

La Brea - $11 mil­lion;

La­van­tille/Mor­vant - $6 mil­lion;

Lopinot/Bon Air West - $25 mil­lion;

Ma­yaro - $21 mil­lion;

Moru­ga/Table­land - $44 mil­lion;

Nar­i­va - $29 mil­lion;

Port-of-Spain South - $15 mil­lion;

San Fer­nan­do East - $30 mil­lion; and

Tabaquite - $42 mil­lion