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Passengers in a Sangre Grande-Mayaro route taxi, in Sangre Grande on Thursday. The fare has increased from $20 to $45 after the collapse of a section of the Manzanilla Road meant drivers have to take a longer alternative route. PHOTO BY MARVIN HAMILTON –

THE fallout over the collapse of the Manzanilla-Mayaro Road which is the main thoroughfare linking Sangre Grande to Mayaro, and vice versa, has reached commuters as the regular taxi fare of $20 reached an incredible $45 on Thursday.

With the main thoroughfare being cut off by the collapsed road, taxi drivers and their customers are suffering as vehicles are “under more strain,” and as a result, fares have more than doubled, and travel times have tripled.

Faye-Ann Phillips, who lives in Manzanilla and works in Mayaro, said she has to be ready for work hours earlier.

“I left at 5.30 am and reached Mayaro at around 7. 30 am. It takes 30 to 40 minutes (on the main route). Depending on the traffic, it could now take two to three hours. It usually costs $20 from here to Sangre Grande but now we’ve been told we have to pay $45. “We do not know how long it would take to fix the road,” Phillips told Newsday on Thursday while seated in a taxi in Mayaro.

Another passenger, Tricia Fletcher, of Ortoire Village, said she works in Sangre Grande, and the collapsed road has caused her significant inconvenience. She now also has to take a longer route to visit her children in Mayaro.

Arlene Brazer of Arima said she visited Mayaro to do some shopping.

Owing to erosion and flooding on Wednesday, part of the Manzanilla Mayaro Road collapsed, causing the Ministry of Works and Transport to close the road between the 61km to 70km marks.

The ministry said the closure was necessary to ensure the safety of drivers and the travelling public. It advised the public to use alternative routes.

On Thursday afternoon, the ministry said its technical team was on site assessing the situation to provide a feasible solution for the reinstatement of the roadway in the shortest possible time.

Taxi drivers plying the Mayaro-Sangre Grande route said the alternative route, through Rio Claro and Biche and onto the Plum Mitan Road, then to the Eastern Main Road, is tedious, long and bad.

“Even the Devil is afraid to pass on that Plum Mitan Road, it is that bad. Business is also slow. Drivers are making two trips, for the most, for the day. With the heavier passengers, our vehicles are dragging on the bad road. The police want us to have road-worthy cars, and we do not have road-worthy roads,” taxi diver Ansel Oliver said.

He awaited passengers at the taxi stand at Peter Hill Trace, Mayaro.

Oliver said, “This is the third major flood we have had for the year. This is the worst. The water started coming up on Sunday. By lunchtime it was so high I stopped working for the day. The Manzanilla Mayaro Road is the shortest route.”

He hopes that while ministry officials are planning to fix the collapsed road, they also do some temporary relief on the Plum Mitan Road.

Another taxi driver, Anderson Bartholomew, said: “This new route is costing us more. The drive is longer and the road is damaging our vehicles.” The longer drive means an increase in fuel cost, and drivers are hoping for a permanent fix.

They recalled that the major floods of 2014, made the same road impassable for over a month.

The Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) has temporarily suspended all services to Guayaguayare operating out of its Sangre Grande depot. PTSC said services would resume once it is safe to do so.

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FILE PHOTO: Vishwanath Naipaul and his common in law wife Chanelle Naipaul. –

VISHWANATH Naipaul and his common-law wife Chanelle have settled into their temporary apartment, after living in their car for almost a month.

Many people, including officials from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, contacted the couple after Newsday published their story on November 4.

Less than 24 hours later, some good samaritans offered help.

The couple, from St Helena, were evicted from their rented apartment on October 20 after Naipaul lost his job as a driver. They were sleeping on the back seat of their car, with plastic garbage bags of their belongings packed on the front seats.

In an update on Wednesday, Naipaul told Newsday someone had offered them a small apartment in Freeport, rent-free for a month.

He said the HDC assessed their situation but almost two weeks later, they are still eagerly awaiting an update on the status of their application.

He said they have been receiving fewer calls from people offering help in the past week.

Naipaul is expected to start a new job next week and until then the couple will be using money donated to them to cover food and other basic necessities.

“Everything stopped more or less. People have more offered places to stay.”

He has little hope the HDC will call soon, so he’s shifted his focus and energy to rebuilding their home at Santa Monica Road, El Carmen Village, St Helena, which they lost in a fire in April last year.

“What I was really looking for, if anyone else wants to help, is building material like blocks, cement, steel, gravel…

“I want to still like everyone who helped. I’m asking now for stuff to rebuild the foundation. And whoever can support financially, in whatever way they can we would be grateful.”

Anyone wishing to help Naipaul and his partner may contact him at 306 8249 or send funds to First Citizen Bank account 2267275.

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A cellphone photo of the fire at UWI’s Lloyd Bratwaite Administration Building which was one of dozens of photos uploaded to social media on Thursday night shortly after the blaze. –

FIRE which is believed to be electrical in nature, broke out at the Lloyd Brathwaite Student Administration Building, UWI St Augustine campus on Thursday night.

An advisory to UWI staff and students said smoke and then flames were seen coming from the building at about 7 pm and the police and fire services were called.

The building, which houses student administration, was immediately evacuated and up to press time, there were no reports of injuries. Firemen, police and the UWI’s administrative staff, including its campus incident management team, were at the scene as of 8.30 pm.

Newsday understands that units from several fire stations including the one in Tunapuna and Fire Headquarters, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain responded.

The building which was built in the early 2000s, was named after the campus principal who served between 1969 and 1984.

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Cabinet will decide on a new date for We Gatherin’ Barbados.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley revealed on Wednesday, at the Springer Memorial Secondary School for St Michael Speaks town hall, that the 12-month celebration of Barbados, which was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be revisited early next year.

2020 was designated as the year for Barbadians across the world, to come back home to celebrate, participate and invest in events and projects across the island. However, that was put to a sharp halt on March 17, 2020 when Barbados recorded its first two COVID-19 cases.

“Cabinet will at some point look at a new date, a new year for We Gatherin’, because we believe that the excitement which it generated in the first 10 weeks of the year, tended for an extraordinary engagement and gathering of the families. And the fact that it was disrupted, will probably make when we do it again even sweeter because there is nothing like celebrating a journey that was difficult to navigate,” said the Prime Minister.

“I give you the assurance that at the appropriate time – once Cabinet has settled these matters, probably early next year – we will be in a position to announce when we think we can resume that wonderful exercise of gathering the generations back onto the rock,” she continued.

Mottley acknowledged that diaspora relations have been impacted due to the pandemic, and stated that the Government was on course to redoubling their efforts, to build a database accounting for Barbadians and the diaspora.

She continued that the country was troubled by a declining population, therefore, all Bajans must return home and to build a better Barbados.

“If we are not having enough people here to carry the weight of lifting this society, and if we are going to face as has been predicted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, that one in every two Barbadians will be over the age of 65 by the year 2050, we do not have enough time to do it the normal natural way.

And therefore, the first thing we must do is issue a clarion call to Bajans and the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Bajans wherever they are.”

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rédaction web guadeloupe 

Coupure électricité • DR

Depuis 14h00 aujourd’hui 24 novembre 2022, la population du Lamentin est impactee par un double incident sur les reseaux electriques moyenne (HTA) et basse tensions (BT).

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