SAVE MILLIONS IN GAS SUBSIDIES

Yet we still don’t have a comprehensive and sensible plan to eliminate our traffic problems. At Grand Bazaar, we have a free flow lane from the Churchill Roosevelt to the Uriah Butler (UB) highway turning South, and another from the UB onto the CR turning west. We recently spent millions widening the CR to UWI; we now have bigger jams than ever before for that effort. Announcing a Grand Bazaar Overpass and a Four Lane Wrightson Road (is it not already 4 lanes) is going to solve the traffic woes?

There will still be 17 traffic lights on the Churchill Roosevelt from Tunapuna Road to El Socorro junction and another five going to Westmoorings with a bottle neck at Wrightson Road to contend with. People are always accused of criticising but not offering any solution. Well, here is a good one. Build a highway on Caroni lands from Trincity going Southwest meeting the UB north of Chaguanas. Build another highway from the Morvant Flyover going East South East near the Caroni River, connecting up South of Grand Bazaar by way of an Overpass to a UP Highway.

Then continuing East along the same Caroni River connecting up to the new highway from Trincity, (south of the CR) we will no longer need that useless interchange at Grand Bazaar or building overpass for all those traffic lights from El Socorro to Piarco. Make the Beetham Highway all the way through Wrightson Road to the Stadium, into three full lanes each way. Relocate the Licensing Office and Container Port. We already have a Container Port in Point Lisas with huge tracts of land available for expansion near a major highway.

It is about time we get a new Licensing Office in a less congested area. Beautify the PoS port like first world countries do, and use it for passenger ships and small island traffic only. The distance from Trincity to Grand Bazaar is 23 kilometres and from Grand Bazaar to Chaguanas is about 18 kilometres. (I checked). Calculate the travelling per vehicle saved from a highway from Trincity to Chaguanas, and Trincity to Morvant Junction. What about the time saved from idling motors at 25 traffic lights? In doing the math one will understand the savings in Time, Gasoline and Stress, reduced Air Pollution, no more traffic jams and the government will save $millions in gas subsidies. Drivers will no longer use residential areas as shortcuts, saving on wear and tear of these streets. We are talking 20/20, oil money flowing, more middle class people each wanting to improve their lives in buying at least a car, but our Commissioner of Traffic is only preaching "we have too many cars now." We need a paradigm shift, we need people with the vision to break down and start from scratch. Enough of that add-on engineering that we are always announcing. Don’t forget, we want to be First World starting today. Ah yes! And no more mamaguy dream in the sky monorail, remember the new under-used long buses? We still have the traffic jams. You have my permission Mr Imbert to take this to Cabinet as your five-year plan.

C ROOPNARINE

San Juan