THE EDITOR, Madam:
I HEARD and read in the news with some amount of disbelief of the re-opening of Hope Road by Minister Peter Phillips and his praise for the contractors who worked "tirelessly" to finish the project on "time and within budget."
What budget? I would like to ask, because the figure in the press of $246 million could never have been realistic!
Let us all stop for a minute and think, really think about $246 million for one stretch of road from Kings House to Matilda's Corner. I ask what distance is this to cost so much money? Was this really a budgeted figure? How is it possible to budget to spend that much money for so little road?
As a concerned Jamaican, I insist this so-called budget be published so we can all see and hope to understand how our tax dollars are being spent.
The cost of this resurfaced road was one problem...but let us not forget the time this expensive road has taken. Just over one year...to us motorists it seemed like a decade!
With such a hefty cost for this road, one would think hi-tech equipment, machinery and overtime labour would have been factored in to ease the stress for us motorists.
For us having to face the stress, heat, lengthy delays and plain inconvenience for so very long and to now hear the praise and the cost of this road. Mr. Minister, what an expensive road!
I am, etc.,
CONCERNED JAMAICAN
