‘Have a little patience’

Speaking prior to a tour of the San Fernando West constituency yesterday, Sinanan while commenting on the water-taxi’s reduced sailing on Friday, also expressed surprise that two of the four water taxis had not been operational for some time. “We had a challenge yesterday,” Sinanan said, adding, “The boat went down the night before so we had to pull one of the water taxi out so we had to cut short two of the sailings from San Fernando and we used the PTSC service to supplement.” “However, we have four water taxis in Trinidad and for some reason or the other, two were not working, we have sorted that problem out, we’ll soon have the four water taxis working so even if we lose one or two, we will still have two water taxis,” he said. “There is a problem in Trinidad with maintenance and we intend to fix that.” Regarding the much maligned seabridge, he said, “We are going through some challenges and I am fairly certain between the next week or two, we should no longer have these problems. I just want to wait until the I’s are dotted, the t’s crossed and this problem will be a thing of the past. Just bear with me about two weeks again and we will solve this problem going forward,” he said.

Sinanan continued: “We will have another ferry here within the next two weeks I expect, so once that is sorted out, we’ll have two ferries working, we should not have this problem going forward.

I just ask the population, just bear with us a little while again, we will solve the cargo problem and we will solve the passenger ferry problem,” he said.

Flanked by both San Fernando West MP Faris Al Rawi and San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello, Sinanan said the Ministry presently has an ongoing “road maintenance program” to rehabilitate roads before they fall into a state of disrepair.

“What we are trying to do is avoid letting the road get to the position where we have to spend significant amounts of money, we trying to implement in the Ministry of Works more maintenance and road rehabilitation, if we can get that right, the country will save a lot of money trying to just pave all the roads just before elections, we want to start now to rehabilitate the roads so that we can at least save going forward,” he said.

He said the Ministry was also addressing damage done to secondary roads by trucks saying the Licensing Department and traffic wardens would soon be enforcing the law regarding the use of these vehicles. “We intend to put our foot down on that one because trucks are licensed for certain roads but what we find happening because of the traffic congestion and everybody want to get to and from, and in local parlance, pull the most trip for the day, they pass in all the back roads and once they pass twice, they damage the roads,” Sinanan said.

“We going to utilise the traffic wardens with the proper signage and the Licensing department will be definitely cracking down on this. When you license a vehicle, especially those vehicles you see sometimes with the S on it, those vehicles were licensed for specific roads and if they are found on roads they are not supposed to be on, then that is a violation,” he said.

He also touched on the flooding along Mosquito Creek saying he had instructed NIDCO to place personnel at the pumps given the advent of the rainy season.

Meanwhile, Al Rawi, who also holds the portfolio of Attorney General, said the Works and Transport Ministry had been able to secure one billion dollars from the OAS contract through the courts and this money would be used to continue the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway.

And with the tour expected to visit kings Wharf, Al Rawi said public transportation was another significant issues in San Fernando as the city was plagued with “traffic congestion and circulation.”