Chased contractor connected to Essar

Published: April 1st, 2009
http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/letters/2009/04/02/chased-contractor-connected-essar

The contractor who was chased offsite at Pranz Gardens on March 26 (Guardian, March 27) was trying to take samples of soil to use in designing the foundations for a new overpass. The overpass is intended to carry the Southern Main Road over the top of a new 100-metre-wide industrial corridor. The corridor is intended to link the proposed new port at Claxton Bay, through the mangrove, to the proposed Essar steel plant. The port, industrial corridor, and overpass are intended to be funded by the Government. The port, industrial corridor, and overpass are unnecessary except to facilitate Essar’s proposed steel plant.

All of the above information is available in documents which are open to public viewing at the offices of the Environmental Management Authority.
It was disingenuous of Essar to state (Guardian, March 30) that Essar had no contractor or sub-contractor working in the area from which the contractor was chased, and that “the location where the incident happened was not part of the site for the steel plant.” The con-tractor was indeed working toward the establishment of the steel plant.

Peter Vine
Couva