Motorists who park illegally in Chaguanas run the risk of getting their vehicles wrecked and would have to pay up $500 to retrieve their vehicles, according to Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner. Warner, the Chaguanas West MP, said so as he unveiled a new traffic plan for the Endeavour flyover yesterday at Mulchan Seuchan Road, Chaguanas.
He said three wreckers would be assigned to the borough and would operate on a 24-hour basis.Vehicles parked along the Chaguanas Main Road and the Caroni Savannah Road would be wrecked, he warned. Warner said he was considering placing metal wheel clamps on vehicles which would render them immobilised for 24 hours as a penalty.
He said he would not tolerate lawlessness and Chaguanas would be the best place to start enforcing the law. Warner said the new plan for the flyover called for the shutting down of the traffic light, closing of all up and down ramps on the flyover and using alternate access roads to create a free flow of traffic.
He said estimates by his ministry showed losses of thousands of man hours a month, as well as a financial loss of $80 million due to traffic in Endeavour. However, the T&T Guardian discovered that although traffic was flowing freely on the northern lane to Endeavour, it was still backing up near the Medford gas station when vehicles attempted to cross lanes to get into the gas station or onto the roadway leading into the northbound lane of the highway.
Orlando Nagessar, the Chaguanas mayor, said he welcomed the new traffic plan. He said there had been an increase in illegal parking on the Chaguanas Main Road since vendors were removed from the streets and relocated to a vendors' mall.
