Bridging Needs and Development...

It is time that we as a people started demanding more of our elected officials where national development is concerned and less where greed and self-promoting, self-enriching projects are concerned. Time and again we are sold on schemes that never materialise as they are usually conceptualized from the 'what's in it for me' perspective and not from the view of how do we develop our nation and our people. Where are the exciting heart and mind capturing initiatives to spur development and drive investment?

We seem to be either devoid of leaders with holistic development vision, or their inward self serving posture leaves them devoid of ideas on a national scale, and we the people need to demand much, much more where our development is concerned.

As an example of such thinking I would like to offer some ideas that I believe could have a transformative effect on this nation and its people and lead us closer to something like developed nation status and a place where most would want to live, and I would like to start with:

A Bridge to Tobago

Far and away the most outrageous idea that we could possibly envision, and yet, if possible, this one project could redefine the relationship our two islands have with each other and the way forward for both the Tobago mainland and large swaths of eastern Trinidad, repositioning us as global players in both the developmental and tourism world.

Imagine being able to just pack up the family and head to pigeon point on any old day without having to incur the hastles and expense of a plane or ferry ride?

Imagine living in Tobago and being able to access services in Trinidad utilising mass transit to and from?

Based on the size and volume of this project we would have no choice but to invite outsiders to plan, build, execute and operate this for as many years as it takes to return the investment, and then to continue to maintain and operate and expand where necessary as a continuous joint venture partner with the people of Trinidad & Tobago.

The Project

Imagine four or six lanes going both ways with one each designated for hire and transport, complete with  emergency and breakdown lanes?

Imagine a bullet train in the center running from Toco to Crown Point once every hour to facilitate those who would rather park and ride?

Operated as a toll bridge this would be supremely lucrative and would save us the cost of both the subsidized air bridge as well as the Tobago ferries, leaving those two enterprises to operate in a free market environment and no longer a  burden to the treasury.

There are not many countries who could take on such a venture, but of those there are many who would be very interested. The idea as outlined above would require complete external financing and investor operation as a toll facility until the initial outlay is recovered, and then to continue to operate and maintain as a revenue earner for both the initial investors and thr People of T&T.

Financially viable, the engineers would have to tell us how exactly they would go about doing this. Judging from some mega projects that I have seen I would suggest a few man made islands between Trinidad and Tobago, and properly developed even these could be used as rest stops with restaurants complete with mariners and water sport and function as a destination in and of themselves. There are may available avenues that could be exploited here and the mind boggles at the possibilities. I sincerely believe that a project of this magnitutde will put us firmly on the international map and would spur our economy specifically in the construction sector substantially for some time and open our people to the concept of national development on a global scale.

Executed as suggested and outlined here there are no real impediments to this as a project, and any obstacles that do exist could easily be overcome through sheer vision and determination. It is time we as a people dared to dream big dreams again, but that is assuming that we have the leadership capable of operating at that level.