Highway Reroute activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh is perturbed by Government’s insistence to restart the collapsed Solomon Hochoy Highway extension by completing the controversial Debe to Mon Desir segment ahead of the others.
The highway, once pegged at $7.5 billion, has several alignments- Golconda to Debe (completed), Debe to San Francique/Siparia Road and Delhi Road (Fyzabad) and Delhi Road to Southern Main Road at Vance River to Dunlop Roundabout, Point Fortin.
It is the second alignment which runs through 13 populated villages in San Francique to Mon Desir that Dr Kublalsingh and the Highway Reroute Movement have been contesting.
During a press conference held at the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union Paramount Headquarters in San Fernando yesterday, Kublalsingh said he was preparing to wage war against Parliament if Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley does not make good on his promise to meet with them.
He said the HRM has made over 70 attempts to meet with Rowley and although the Prime Minister agreed to meet with them on two occasions, the meetings were cancelled at the last moment and were never rescheduled.
Kublalsingh called for a full-scale independent audit of the collapsed highway project.
He said following Rowley’s announcement last week that construction of the highway will restart by the end of March or early April once contractors place their bids, the HRM has been concerned. Saying the announcement was like rubbing salt in their wounds, Kublalsingh said: “We will be looking carefully at Parliament to see whether it is a revolving door for corruption.
“It seems Parliament is an affliction to the people and we will have to deconstruct it.”
He called on government to focus on completing the San Fernando to Point Fortin segment and leave the segment which runs through the communities until a proper hydrological study and cost benefit analysis are done.
“The segment from Debe through Mon Desir is running through 13 communities and will have significant impact on our ecology. We have nine miles of highway cutting through 150 homes, 119 farms , mosques temples and churches. It is disasterous to our food economy,” Kublalsingh said.
Saying government must not proceed until substantiative studies are done, Kublalsingh said: “I don’t want to warn the Prime Minister because he is a man of science...a geologist and he ought to have better sense.
“I want to ask him to meet with us because we have been struggling for over 15 years through successive governments and we have never lost.”
Political leader of the Movement for Social Justice David Abdulah said the Government was no longer tied to contractural obligations with OAS Construtora so it should carefully consider the HRM’s position before proceeding further with the Debe to Mon Desir segment.
“The wise and proper thing to do is to not proceed with this segment,” Abdulah said.