Hundreds of people clad in red descended on Carlisle Car Park, The City, as the Barbados Labour Party held a public meeting to mark the anniversary of the first year in offices.
Minister of Transport Works and Maintenance, Dr William Duguid, took the stage first and gave a recap of what the island’s transport sector accomplished over that time.
He said three factors contributed to the current state of the Transport Board, the reluctance of the last administration to buy any buses, effective privatisation of the entity and the issuing of over 300 permits to public service vehicles.
Those factors, Duguid said, had resulted in low revenue and difficulties in servicing the many routes throughout the island.
The Minister also promised more roads will be fixed through funds from the Inter-American Development Bank.
These include The Belle, Highway 6, Lears and Highway 3 at Hothersal in St Michael; Carmichael, St George; Long Bay and Belair in St Philip, Searles, Christ Church; Ermie Bourne 1 and 2 in St Andrew and the eastbound section of the ABC Highway.
Other roads to be fixed under Latin American Bank funding include Well Gap, St Michael; Welch Village, St John; St Catherine, St Philip; Babylon, St Andrew, Boarded Hall 1 and 2 in St George, Greenfield in The City and several areas in The Pine, St Michael.
Duguid said citizens queried why certain roads – which did not appear to be as bad as others – were paved first, but they assessed the level of deterioration, the volume of traffic and so on.
The Ministry also embarked on a nighttime road marking programme and replaced hundreds of broken lights on the ABC Highway. Duguid said more lights will be replaced. (RA/SAT)
