SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

 The com­mis­sion­ing of the Wa­ter Taxi Pedes­tri­an Over­pass is proof that the Gov­ern­ment can de­liv­er on their pro­posed re­vi­tal­iza­tion project for Port of Spain.

This ac­cord­ing to Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan.

Sinanan hit out at de­trac­tors of the re­vi­tal­iza­tion project.

“This didn’t start two days ago. This was a vi­sion the gov­ern­ment had for the de­vel­op­ment of Port-of-Spain since 2015 and that is why the East Port-of-Spain de­vel­op­ment is about to kick off. It is not just a dream. It is a project that is ready to start and this project will tie in­to that be­cause what this project will do is to bring that pedes­tri­an in­ter­ac­tion in­to the in­ner city. Now you can walk from end to end of the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade. You can cross the street, you can to the break­fast shed, you can go to the Wa­ter Taxi to To­ba­go,” Sinanan said.

The brand new walkover, which Sinanan boast­ed is one of the most mod­ern in the Caribbean, can ac­com­mo­date the dif­fer­ent­ly-abled with el­e­va­tors and wheel­chair ramps. It was built by RJB Lim­it­ed at a cost of $13.9 mil­lion.

He said the project was de­liv­ered ten months be­hind sched­ule but said he made a de­ci­sion to al­low the con­trac­tor to con­tin­ue the project rather than have it re-ten­dered.

“My choice then on the de­lay was fire the con­trac­tor, in­crease the bud­get and have it done in time for the gen­er­al elec­tion. My phi­los­o­phy is that you can’t run a coun­try from elec­tion to elec­tion and we de­cid­ed to stick with the con­trac­tor, work with the con­trac­tor and I am hap­py that al­though there was a de­lay in the project, the project came in with­in bud­get and what we present to the pub­lic is a first-class walkover that can com­pete with any walkover in any part of the world.”

He urged cit­i­zens to make use of the walkover and stop risk­ing their lives to run across the busy high­way.