No
stopping of rapid rail project—Imbert
By Curtis Williams
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 17 06
Government
intends to award a contract for the construction
of a rapid rail system by the end of January, 2007.
Works
and Transport Minister Colm Imbert revealed on Tuesday
that the project had been delayed by a month, despite
the decision to remove the consultants, Parsons
Brinckerhoff, and now there are calls from three
groups for the project to be delayed.
In
a letter to Prime Minister Patrick Manning, dated
November 30, the Joint Consultative Council, the
T&T Manufacturers Association and the T&T
Transparency Institute called for a halt to plans
to build a rapid rail system in Trinidad , pending
further studies on its viability, the establishment
of a transit authority and a two-stage tendering
process for Design-Build-Operate-Maintain projects.
In
a telephone interview yesterday, Imbert said it
was the first he was hearing of the letter and he
did not have the two position papers the groups
had put out.
I
will have to study their recommendations closely.
But on the surface I think they are attempting to
determine policy for the Government, which is the
purview of the Cabinet.” Imbert said.
He
insisted that the rapid rail project will go ahead,
because during the last decade there were several
studies which showed the need for the project.
In
that context, Imbert said, the rapid rail project
will not be held back. He said: “There has
been a short delay. We had initially indicated that
we wanted to award the project by December 31, but
that has now been pushed back to the end of January.”
The
minister told the Guardian that the final report
of the Comprehensive National Transportation Study
was not yet complete.
He
said the process was well known and he was surprised
that some groups continued to ask for it.
Imbert
said a draft final report was presented and the
Ministry of Works had to go through the recommendations
“in detail” to determine what needed
to be completed and then ask the consultants to
do more work.
“The
final report is not yet ready. It can’t be.
There have been several persons asking for the report,
but there is a process and they are fully aware.”
Imbert said.
Imbert
said that while he was prepared to look into all
the recommendations, some of them were far-reaching.
He
said the proposal to establish a Transit Authority
would effectively mean that there was no room for
organisations like the Public Transport Service
Corporation, the Port Authority and the Aviation
Authority.
Imbert
explained: “If you are saying there should
be one authority, then it means that there should
not be any PTSC, Port Authority, Aviation Authority
and so on. That is very far-reaching.
“But
even if we were to go that way, and I am not saying
we will, that does not mean that we should stop
the rapid rail project. All I am seeing are calls
for more and more studies and the project being
delayed by another five years. That will be a classic
case of while the grass is growing the horse is
starving,” the minister said.
The
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday 14th December, 2006
Copyright
©2006 The Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
