Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works Richie Sookhai says the widen­ing of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way be­tween Chase Vil­lage and Ch­agua­nas should be com­plet­ed be­fore the end of the year.

He gave the as­sur­ance as he at­tend­ed a chil­dren’s treat at the Post­man Road Recre­ation Ground, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas, on Sat­ur­day.

Sookhai, who is al­so the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) can­di­date for Ch­agua­nas East in the next gen­er­al elec­tion, said of­fi­cials at the Pro­gramme for the Up­grade or Road Ef­fi­cien­cy (PURE) have in­di­cat­ed that the high­way widen­ing should not suf­fer any more de­lays. He said in­clement weath­er was the main cause of the de­lay.

The project adds a third lane to both sides of the high­way from Bhag­wans­ingh’s Hard­ware, Ch­agua­nas, in the north, to the Chase Vil­lage over­pass in the south. This is the first phase in the widen­ing of the high­way from Ch­agua­nas to San Fer­nan­do. Works com­menced in Jan­u­ary and were ini­tial­ly ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed in Au­gust at a cost of $65 mil­lion.

Sookhai al­so spoke on crime.

“One of the con­cerns I am hear­ing from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is that of ex­tor­tion. The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has the An­ti-ex­tor­tion Unit up and run­ning, and some in­di­vid­u­als are reach­ing out,” he said.

Speak­ing on crime in Ch­agua­nas East, Sookhai said it has been sys­temic in the area for a long time and re­quires a long-term com­mu­ni­ty ap­proach to re­build the ca­ma­raderie in the area.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, ASP Ramd­hanie Dipc­hand, of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, said there would be an in­creased po­lice pres­ence in all com­mu­ni­ties for the Christ­mas sea­son. Dipc­hand said the pub­lic can look for­ward to a greater po­lice pres­ence in the com­ing days.