$200M FOR NORTH-EAST TOBAGO

Repair/reconstruction of the Windward Main Road between Delaford and Charlotteville — which was badly damaged by mudslides during the recent rainstorm — is estimated to cost some $200 million, according to Hilton Sandy, Secretary of Infrastructure/Public Utilities at the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

At yesterday afternoon’s post-executive council meeting press briefing, Sandy said this figure specifically covered road and related infrastructure works, such as retaining walls, drainage and so on. Much of this cost will be concentrated in the hardest hit area between King’s Bay, Delaford, and Speyside. In some places the roadway will have to be completely rebuilt, and in other areas, such as the downhill entry into Charlotteville, it must be diverted, he explained.

THA Chief Secretary Orville London described it as a “mini- development plan” for north-east Tobago. He noted there had been on the drawing board a North-East Tobago Management Plan which had identified infrastructural development as a priority. “This is both a challenge and an opportunity, because it’s an opportunity for us to do things and maybe to do them a little better, a little different than we had planned to do them, taking into consideration all the lessons that we would have learned from this particular exercise,” London asserted. “So it’s not going to be cheap, but it has to be done, and it has to be done right!”