Thursday, February 4 2010

SHOULD the $15 billion highway development programme which Minister of Works and Transport, Colm Imbert, insisted last week his Ministry intended to launch this year, be implemented it would, together with the water taxis and the proposed rapid rail project, considerably reduce travel time for both the country’s work force and schoolchildren. As we have pointed out in earlier editorials it would eliminate the stress induced by today’s horrific traffic congestion on the nation’s roads.

In turn, there would be increased productivity in the work place and in the classroom as a result of committed and other workers and students arriving at their respective plants, offices, stores and schools well on time and stress free. There will be the added plus of students at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions as well as at skills training centres being positioned to make optimum use of the educational opportunities offered.

In addition, the implementation of the $15 billion highways extension and construction programme would stimulate employment opportunities as well as create opportunities for domestic contractors to develop and/or acquire skills from their foreign counterparts through joint venture partnerships. The increased productivity at the educational and work place level and the honing of skills will better position Trinidad and Tobago to achieve developed country status in acomparatively short time.

The projected $15 billion highway development programme, spoken of by Minister Imbert, may trigger questions as to why so great an expenditure when the country is, technically, in a period of recession. This aspect of infrastructure development, however, because of its focus on greater productivity through on time starts at the work place and classroom will reap economic as well as educational benefits in the short, medium and long term. Increased productivity at plants and offices, inter alia, will make TT goods and services that more competitive in the domestic, regional and international work place.

In turn, it will mean additional revenue from exports, corporation and personal income taxes, Value Added Tax and Customs and Excise duties. Other pluses are that more money will be turned around within the economy, together with the creating of greater opportunities for lower middle and middle income earners to invest either directly in business enterprises or on the TT Stock Exchange. Additionally, the benefits referred to will be contributory factors in a determined and welcome growth in the country’s Gross DomesticProduct (GDP).

The interconnection of highway development, the already in place water taxi service and the introduction of rapid railwill provide Trinidad and Tobago with a transport network, second to none in the region and, perhaps, in all of Central and South America as well. The proposed introduction of rapid rail, together with the planned development of Trinidad’s highway system, specifically, and the continued operation of the successful water taxi service will free up existing main and secondary roads for the transporting of landed food, materials and equipment by trucks. Trucks will be able to travel south to north and vice versa as well as along the East/West Corridor without adding to or themselves creating traffic congestion, a troubling factor today. This means that they will be able to depart from their home basessomewhat later than at present to collect goods, machinery and equipment at, for example, the Port of Port-of-Spain and the Point Lisas Port or the Port of Pointe-a-Pierre and transport them to their respective destinations without needlessly added time for congestion, thus effectively reducing the cost of haulage. This will have a positive impact in the short, medium and long term on the cost of delivery of foodstuff, materials, machinery and equipment and, ultimately, on the country’s cost of living, along with that of housing as well as commercial and industrial projects and their operation.