Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan has said his ministry received permission from the Ministry of Health for crucial rehabilitation work on key infrastructure before the official restart of government construction.
His response came after concerns over roadworks being done along the Valencia Main Road on Monday morning.
Drivers were left confused as they passed men and heavy equipment on the roadside doing drainage works.
The Prime Minister announced last Saturday, during a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, that government construction will resume approximately a week from now, on July 5.
[caption id="attachment_897612" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A police vehicle drove by as labourers work on a drain along the Valencia Main Road on Monday morning. Photo by Roger Jacob[/caption]
Sinanan told Newsday, “There is some emergency work that has to be done to prevent further deterioration (and) areas from becoming impassable.
"Due to covid19 restrictions, the process for that is that we write to the Ministry of Health for those projects. So those projects you see happening are projects we got permission for, and because of the nature of the job, it had to restart.”
Bridge, road, drainage and river projects, along with an ongoing desilting programme, are among the emergency projects granted permission to resume.
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Each year, the Works Ministry usually undertakes construction projects across the country to prepare for the rainy season. Sinanan was unable to say how many projects were given the green light or exactly when and where the work resumed.
“There were some drainage projects that had to be done. Because of the close-down, you’ll find that the deterioration would have continued.
"After three weeks we would have looked at it, assessed it and we wrote to the minister (Terrence Deyalsingh) identifying the projects and explaining why we had to restart it to protect the area.
"In the case of roadworks, the road would have become impassable, like what was happening in Toco side, and the entire constituency would have gotten cut off.”
He said other ministries also presented emergency projects for assessment for permission to restart.
“In our case, we couldn’t just leave the emergency projects and say, ‘Well, go in after,' We had to go in immediately,
"But first we made a case with the ministry (of health) for our service team to go in and protect the infrastructure, of course under supervision and covid19 guidelines... There are some we would have gotten permission for and haven’t started as yet because there are certain criteria we have to fullfil before.
[caption id="attachment_897613" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Workers were busy on Monday conducting their roadworks along the Valencia Main Road. Photo by Roger Jacob[/caption]
In Tobago, Secreta
