New
rapid rail deadline set
By
Sherwin Long
The Trinidad Guardian
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com 04 02 07
Works and Transport Minister Colm
Imbert is assuring that the $7 billion contract
to build the Government’s proposed rapid rail
will be awarded by month’s end.
This revised deadline will arrive
almost two months after a previous February 28 deadline
had been set.
Imbert, however, attributed the
delay to “intensive scrutiny” of the
contract’s details.
“It is better to take an additional
month to get the contract right, rather than spend
three years in court and the project is stalled,”
he told the Guardian.
“We must avoid potential litigation.”
Two consortia remain in the bidding
war for the rapid rail undertaking: the Trinitrain
consortium, led by Bouygues Travaux Publics, and
the T-3 Group, led by Vinci Construction and Bombardier.
Imbert said negotiations had started
on March 26 and a contract would be awarded for
the design and planning phase of the project.
The Government has positioned the
rapid rail as one possible cure for transportation
ills affecting the country.
The proposed project though, has
its fair share of critics.
The Association of Professional
Engineers of T&T (Apett) has called on a feasibility
study to precede the award of any contract.
The association also cited the need
for a transit authority to govern national transportation.
Apett recently embarked on a tour
of the country, presenting its views on transportation
issues to the public.
In a recent presentation, Dr Rae
Furlonge, a transport consultant and an Apett member,
called on the Government to consider bus rapid transit.
He cited a Cansult study from 1996,
which showed that during morning peak hours 20,000
people travelled into Port-of-Spain from the east
in 4,500 vehicles.
Furlonge said, however, a 2005 PB
study showed during morning peak hours 20,000 people
travelled into Port-of-Spain from the east in 7,000
vehicles.
He suggested that bus rapid transit
could be implemented in stages, to keep costs down,
and not lose other transport options for the future.
Previously, Imbert said the rapid
rail would hasten the Government’s plan to
decentralise the city of Port-of-Spain, since a
lack of transport options had hindered decentralisation.
Imbert also said that the rail would
bring a number of economic and entrepreneurial opportunities
to several communities along its path.
He said that by 2010 the project
was expected to be complete from Curepe to Port-of-Spain
and Curepe to Chaguanas.
In
total, the rapid rail will cover 72 miles at a cost
of US$15 million a mile.
Trinidad
Guardian
Monday 2nd April, 2007
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