Long-requested lighting is to be installed along a dark stretch of Highway 2A.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw made the announcement while speaking at the launch of the Barbados Labour Party’s manifesto in Golden Square Freedom Park last Saturday night.
It was among proposals outlined in the manifesto, that included improvements in the public transport system and Barbados’ road network.
The BLP candidate for St Michael South East told supporters: “I can tell you tonight that I got 1 000 solar lights coming from across the seas landing here by March to make sure that for the first time, Highway 2A is fully lit from its junction at Warrens, all the way to Mile and a Quarter.”
Addressing the issue of public transportation, the Transport and Works Minister also advised that the 35 electric buses bought from the People’s Republic of China last December at a cost of about $21 million, would be rolled out from last Monday, bringing the electric bus fleet plying Transport Board routes to 121.
Bradshaw also seized the opportunity to refute claims that “the BLP is trying to disenfranchise the workers of the Transport Board; that we are trying to sell off the Transport Board,” in its planned divestment of the Government-operated public transport system.
“We have determined that when it comes to mass transit and being able to make the mass transit system in Barbados more efficient, that we will enfranchise the workers of the Transport Board . . . We want to ensure in 2026 and beyond, that there is a system of public transportation that is reliable and more efficient.”
She added Government was in consultation with the trade unions about the position of the current Transport Board employees, advising those discussions would continue and the outcome announced when that process was completed.
However, she gave the assurance that the “status quo will remain” for school children, elderly people and people with disabilities “who have had the benefit of public transportation for years.”
Bradshaw said the BLP Government was also focusing on the issue of traffic congestion on Barbados’ roads as set out in the party’s manifesto.
She highlighted an ongoing project to fix “20 major roads and highways” this year, and suggested Government must consider additional ways to easing the congestion problem such as improvement of traffic signals and staggered school hours. She also suggested a change in public behaviour, suggesting the public should consider car-pooling, given the increasing number of vehicles in households.
