PART 1
Urvashi Tiwari-Roopnarine GML multi-media journalist
It has been the source of controversy ever since construction started...but what exactly is at stake with the Point Fortin highway? To begin with, the highway was born in the 60s—the decade of our independence. The State, years before the first oil boom, foresaw cross country movement would one day outgrow donkey carts, bicycles, and a few hundred motor cars.
After all, across the world transportation has arguably become the most essential advancement of the century, which allows the movement of people and access to goods and services. People now want to go farther faster, so in 1967, two years after the last train from Port-of-Spain to San Fernando, an instrumental study was undertaken by the Inter-American Development Bank, called the National Transportation Plan (NTP).
After almost three decades have elapsed, the first mentioned is the only one to kick off and is now at the construction stage. This visionary era of connectivity, many say, has become overdue. One Cedros resident, Ravi said, “If any of my relatives get sick, we have to rush them to San Fernando (General Hospital). That does take two hours and if it have traffic, it’s three.”
Nidco’s Project Manager for the highway Dennis Harricharan said, “All around SS Erin Road, Debe, Siparia, these areas have developed not only into residential and commercial but industrial also.” Pre-feasibility studies undertaken in 1998 and feasibility studies in 2004 unearthed a need to link the residential hubs. “That particular study looked at key things—the final proposal actually did that, linking the hubs to the main frame of the highway,” he said.
One of those links proposed a causeway between Debe and San Francique. This gave birth to the first incarnation of the Highway Re-route Movement (HRM) called the Debe to San Francique Action Committee, chaired at the time by now Housing and Urban Development Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal. Protests by the group ended with a decision to preserve the Debe market and Banwarie Trace Archaeological Site, and instead link Debe to Mon Desir.
Several routes had been proposed for this new leg, but the central route was preferred. A court affidavit from Nidco’s Vice President of Engineering Steve Garabsingh sought to justify the choice in the interest of the number of houses acquired and environmental impact. “The design of the highway does not consider only the traffic at this point in time, but future growth in the area,” said Harricharran.
Detailed designs of the 47 km project were completed in 2007, making it the largest highway network undertaken in the country’s history. “If you really look at the design, you would see interchanges located just outside of towns with connector roads leading to the town,” he explained Tendering for the project closed on May 7, weeks before the May 24 general election which would see an historic change in government.
Three companies submitted tenders—China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd ($6.36b), Construtora OAS Ltd ($5.28b) and GLF construction Corporation ($5.38b). According to information received from Nidco, the Tender Evaluation Committee deemed OAS the preferred respondent on May 13, 2010.
But former minister of works, Colm Imbert has been reported as saying his administration did not award the contract. He said they opted instead for a re-tender because it viewed the bid price as too steep (compared to the engineer’s estimate of $3.6b), and to allow for reconsideration of the protected forests and wetlands.
In his Lower House contribution on June 28, 2013, Imbert said, “So the Minister goes off to South Africa to the World Cup, meets with representatives of this project, and then after that, what happens? The same contract, where you have an estimate of $3.6 billion, and the bid is $5.3, is suddenly revived.”
Negotiations took place under the People’s Partnership’s regime between January 5 and January 14, 2011, a time when the Ministry of Works was assigned to Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner. The Government entered a formal agreement with Brazilian-based OAS on July 4, 2011, at a price tag of $5,213,893,000 (VAT inclusive).
In 2012, Oxford graduate and UWI lecturer Dr Wayne Kublalsingh joined the revamped HRM, championing the social, environmental impact of the Debe to Mon Desir route. But Nidco has stood its ground, saying the selected route was best. “You can never come up with an option that suits all and where there are no negatives and only positives…With any route, there would be positives and negatives,” said Harricharran.
On November 14, 2012, Dr Kublalsingh started a 21-day hunger strike which ended when the Government agreed to an independent review of the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the highway. The task was undertaken by the Joint Consultative Committee at a cost of $1,000,000. It is now dubbed the Armstrong Report after Dr James Armstrong headed the task to review documentation by both parties and conduct interviews within a 60-day period.
In 2013, Dr Kublalsingh—who had been a part-time Literature lecturer at the UWI for 16 years—was not retained to teach at the institution. he environmentalist is on day 46 of his second hunger strike, this time to protest what he believes is Government’s refusal to abide with the recommendation to stop construction of the contentious leg and conduct further assessments.
The HRM is challenging the State before the court even as various segments have been opened, including the Golconda Interchange earlier this month. The project stands 34 per cent complete. (see Pages A9, A10, A11)
—Part 2 tomorrow
