Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works Richie Sookhai has promised the widen­ing of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way be­tween Chase Vil­lage and Ch­agua­nas should be com­plet­ed be­fore the end of this year. He gave this as­sur­ance when he at­tend­ed a chil­dren’s treat at the Post­man Road Recre­ation Ground, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas, on Sat­ur­day.

Sookhai, who is al­so the PNM’s can­di­date for Ch­agua­nas East, said of­fi­cials at PURE (Pro­gramme for the Up­grade or Road Ef­fi­cien­cy) pledged that the road would not suf­fer any fur­ther de­lays. He added that in­clement weath­er was the main cause of the de­lay.

The project adds a third lane to both sides of the high­way, from the vicin­i­ty of Bhag­wans­ingh’s Hard­ware in Ch­agua­nas in the North to the Chase Vil­lage over­pass in the South. This marks the first phase of the high­way’s widen­ing from Ch­agua­nas to San Fer­nan­do. Work com­menced in Jan­u­ary and was 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.” Re­gard­ing crime in Ch­agua­nas East, Sookhai said that crime has been sys­temic in the area for a long time. He ex­plained that it re­quires a long-term com­mu­ni­ty ap­proach to re­build the ca­ma­raderie in the area.

Po­lice Pa­trols to Start

In a tele­phone in­ter­view, ASP Dipc­hand of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion con­firmed that there would be an in­creased po­lice pres­ence in all com­mu­ni­ties for the Christ­mas sea­son. Dipc­hand said the pub­lic can ex­pect a greater po­lice pres­ence in the com­ing days.