Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has an­nounced the for­ma­tion of a road re­pair com­pa­ny which is to un­der­take the fix­ing of pot­holes and oth­er dam­age to roads across the coun­try.

He said the gov­ern­ment could not do it in the last two years be­cause of the amount of mon­ey be­ing spent on en­sur­ing the safe­ty of cit­i­zens dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

"Yes, this gov­ern­ment ac­knowl­edges that the roads in this coun­try would have de­te­ri­o­rat­ed con­sid­er­ably. We ac­knowl­edge that. You know why?

Dur­ing 2020 and 2021 we spent the mon­ey keep­ing you alive and there was not suf­fi­cient mon­ey to spend on road re­pairs. we made that call be­cause as far as we're con­cerned spend­ing the mon­ey keep­ing you alive dur­ing the pan­dem­ic," Dr Row­ley said.

Dr Row­ley, speak­ing dur­ing a Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) pub­lic meet­ing in Bel­mont last night, said the gov­ern­ment is now in a po­si­tion to do bet­ter.

"On­ly re­cent­ly the Cab­i­net ap­proved the for­ma­tion of a road re­pair com­pa­ny specif­i­cal­ly in the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment. That com­pa­ny is be­ing op­er­a­tionalised now. A board has been ap­point­ed, the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance will make the mon­ey avail­able, they are go­ing to mo­bilise the con­trac­tors small, medi­um and what­ev­er and we are go­ing to go out oth­er there and re­in­state or roads. Our roads will not re­main sub­stan­dard for­ev­er. It was a ques­tion of pri­or­i­ties," Dr Row­ley said.

The Gov­ern­ment has been un­der pres­sure for the state of the roads, with sev­er­al land­slips and large pot­holes hap­pen­ing across T&T.

Dr Row­ley added that "in the mid­dle of a pan­dem­ic the pri­or­i­ty could not be 'pot­hole', the pri­or­i­ty had to be life and limb."

Workers from the Port-of-Spain City Corporation repair potholes on Chancery Lane, Port-of-Spain.

KERWIN PIERRE