Rishard Khan

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

Ma­yaro res­i­dents are call­ing on au­thor­i­ties to re­pair the Ma­yaro/Guayagua­yare Road.

Maxi dri­ver along the route for the last 23 years, Son­ny Ram­s­ingh, yes­ter­day es­ti­mat­ed the last time the road re­ceived any ma­jor re­pairs was 20 years ago.

A res­i­dent and taxi dri­ver known as “Chi­nee” said the de­plorable con­di­tion of the road was tak­ing a toll on their ve­hi­cles and wal­lets.

“As a Ma­yaro/Guayagua­yare per­son, and the things com­ing out of here (for the coun­try), I feel we could be in a bet­ter po­si­tion than we in here right now,” he said.

Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray said he made rep­re­sen­ta­tions to Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan in Par­lia­ment over a month ago and was told there were no plans to re­ha­bil­i­tate the road.

Paray said res­i­dents were frus­trat­ed and al­though they have not protest­ed yet, it was not off the ta­ble.

Com­pound­ing their frus­tra­tion, he said, was the fact that the re­cent­ly opened ten-kilo­me­tre tem­po­rary By­pass Road in Man­zanil­la is rid­dled with pot­holes and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing just three months af­ter it was opened.

“We’re just prob­a­bly one inch away from mis­be­hav­iour. I am telling you, peo­ple in Ma­yaro, they are very law- abid­ing peo­ple,” he said.

Since the dry sea­son be­gan, the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port has been on an ag­gres­sive road re­pair pro­gramme. Three weeks ago, Min­is­ter Sinanan said it had al­ready com­plet­ed 50 per cent of the projects in the first phase of the pro­gramme.