Highway supporters tried to chase members of the Highway Reroute Movement (HRM) from outside the Namdevco market in Debe yesterday, as the group outlined an alternative route for the controversial Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Point Fortin Highway. The proposal is expected to be submitted to the Government this week in a last-ditch attempt to redirect the Mon Desir to Debe segment of the $7.4bn Solomon Hochoy highway extension.
Dr Wayne Kublalsingh who is on a hunger strike did not attend the meeting. He was represented by MSJ political leader David Abdulah who faced protests from group of Debe residents calling themselves the Highway Support Group. Led by Mohini Ramnarine and Indar Jairaj, they staged a noisy protest outside the market. “We don’t want to hear them. This highway is for our children and grandchildren,” said Ramnarine. Jairaj said he was fed up with the HRM’s attempts to stop construction of the highway extension. “Let them come here on mornings and see the traffic,” he said. The HRM led a tour of Ghandi Village and Suchit Trace where they outlined the alternative route.
Activist Shireen Boodhai said the HRM was recommending that existing connector roads be used as linkages to the new route which has already been bulldozed and cleared. “This proposal is based on a main road, not a four-lane carriageway, running from the Debe Interchange, across the main road at Ghandi Village, parallel to Debe Trace, crossing Suchit Trace, across Gopie Trace, running parallel to Raju Trace, crossing San Francique Main Road and onto the SS Erin Road, south of the San Francique/ SS Erin Road,” she explained.
Boodhai said this was the best option as it went around the communities and was less destructive than the highway route. “This will be built at the level and width of other roads and so will fit into the general road architecture, not disrupt and fragment it,” she said. She said that there would be no need for large destructive interchanges at Penal, Siparia and Fyzabad, or any overpasses or underpasses. “This will save our Treasury billions of dollars. This will avoid the Oropouche Lagoon completely and it will connect the rich grid of streets already connected to Siparia, Penal and Debe,” Boodhai said.
Abdulah said if the Government used the alternative route it would save taxpayers billions of dollars. “Entire communities will be saved,” he said. The MSJ leader said he did not agree with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s claim that because the matter was in court she could not discuss the HRM’s proposals. Abdulah said disputes could be solved bilaterally and by the time the court case was settled in a few years, entire communities would be destroyed. He said the destruction of the environment would be irreversible, so it was in the best interest of the country to continue to lobby for change.
Abdulah also said Kublalsingh was lucid but growing weak. Representative for Green Peace Judith De Verteil supported the HRM’s proposal. “This route will not interfere with the wetlands. It means aggregate from the Northern Range will be saved,” she said. President general of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) Ancil Roget urged citizens to work together to bring sustainable development to T&T. He claimed members of the Highway Support Group were paid by the Government to disrupt the work of the HRM. A senior official of Nidco said the existing Mon Desir to Debe route will not interfere with the Oropouche Lagoon and work on the controversial highway segment would continue.