KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.Felmine@guardian.co.tt

From to­mor­row, com­muters trav­el­ling be­tween Point Fortin and San Fer­nan­do can ex­pect that jour­ney to be 25 min­utes short­er as the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port will open an­oth­er por­tion of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way Ex­ten­sion.

Point Fortin MP Kennedy Richards Jr said mo­torists will have ac­cess to one side of the new high­way that con­nects Grant’s Road, Rousil­lac, to Vance Riv­er, La Brea. He said it can take mo­torists ap­prox­i­mate­ly ten min­utes from Vance Riv­er to St Mary’s Junc­tion, South Oropouche. Paving is com­plete on the oth­er side, but due to mi­nor out­stand­ing work and safe­ty con­cerns, the Min­istry de­layed full ac­cess by a few weeks.

“You will have par­tial ac­cess from Mon­day, so when school opens, we will use one lane, up and down, and once the round­about by the dump road is com­plete, we will have full ac­cess all the way from Dun­lop (Round­about) to Grant’s Road,” Richard Jr said.

The MP said he ex­pects the fur­ther open­ing of the high­way to pos­i­tive­ly af­fect every­one on the south­west­ern penin­su­la as it by­pass­es the soft and bumpy South­ern Main Road in La Brea.

Richards Jr said he ex­pects more vis­i­tors to Point Fortin, es­pe­cial­ly first-timers when the high­way ex­ten­sion is com­plet­ed lat­er this year. He be­lieves greater ac­cess will boost the lo­cal econ­o­my, with peo­ple vis­it­ing the beach­es, lo­cal busi­ness­es and fam­i­ly. He al­so en­cour­ages com­pa­nies to set up in Point Fortin.

“We are open, and we are in­ter­est­ed. Whether it is a Pen­ny­wise or oth­er out­let, we are open. So come down and set up your busi­ness here. I am sure once you ar­rive, you will nev­er leave. Point Fortin is the best place in the world,” he said.

The MP spoke about the high­way ex­ten­sion when he added an Adopt-a-Child book dri­ve at the South West Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Egypt Vil­lage, Point Fortin. School prin­ci­pals in the con­stituen­cy sub­mit­ted stu­dents’ names and book lists dur­ing the Ju­ly/Au­gust school break.

Richards Jr said his of­fice ful­filled en­tire book lists for 200 stu­dents in time for to­mor­row’s school re­open­ing. He be­lieves it will ben­e­fit chil­dren and fam­i­lies who could not get sup­plies in time. He said ed­u­ca­tion af­ford­ed him his job as a pi­lot. There­fore, he be­lieves chil­dren can ben­e­fit from the ven­ture and even con­tribute to such events in the fu­ture.