RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Less than a month af­ter the M1 Tasker Road col­lapsed fol­low­ing heavy rains, the Min­istry of Woks and Trans­port has com­plet­ed re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive works and will re­open the road on Tues­day.

On Di­vali, rather than spend time with fam­i­ly and friends, Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan toured land­slip-rav­aged ar­eas in south Trinidad, in­clud­ing the M1 Tasker Road which col­lapsed on Sep­tem­ber 27, fol­low­ing heavy rains. 

Sinanan said the road is now open to the pub­lic.

He not­ed that the ex­ist­ing chan­nels have been widened to ac­com­mo­date in­creased vol­umes of wa­ter that flow from the Cipero Riv­er and its trib­u­taries.

Asked whether the min­istry has start­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the back­fill­ing of the Cipero Riv­er by a con­trac­tor which has caused ero­sion and dam­age to in­fra­struc­ture and prop­er­ties, Sinanan said such en­croach­ment must be ad­dressed by the Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion which has the pow­er to is­sue stop no­tices.

He said: "We have to hold peo­ple ac­count­able. The Min­istry's hands are lim­it­ed. The re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion is the first in­sti­tu­tion to go and stop this kind of ac­tion but for some strange rea­son this is not hap­pen­ing."

Il­le­gal en­croach­ment of wa­ter­cours­es, un­planned de­vel­op­ment and in­dis­ci­pline re­mains ram­pant, the min­is­ter lament­ed.

"The in­fra­struc­ture we have is over 100 years old and the cli­mate is chang­ing. We have to al­so deal with those who are mak­ing the prob­lem worse. We de­pend heav­i­ly on the Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion to find out whether peo­ple have the rel­e­vant ap­provals. 

"Com­muters will be hap­py be­cause the by­pass to this road adds an hour of com­mute," he said.

Al­so vis­it­ing the area was Sher­az Ho­sein, Dis­trict En­gi­neer from the High­ways di­vi­sion who said the bridge was de­mol­ished and re­con­struct­ed with in­creased catch­ment size. Since the M1 tasker Road col­lapsed, mo­torists have been us­ing al­ter­na­tive routes through the Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road and Man­a­ham­bre Road which adds an ex­tra hour of com­mute.