Dear Editor,
As a resident of the East Bank of Demerara, I would like to highlight the horrendous traffic congestion that occurs daily on the East Bank Public Road from Little Diamond to Grove (heading south) and from Friendship to Diamond (northward bound). The traffic congestion is a major concern and daily frustration for the residents of the communities stretching from Grove to Timehri, inclusive of Linden.
On a normal day, it takes more than thrice the normal travel time to arrive at work and to return home, which is unbearable and nothing short of a nightmare to experience on a daily basis. It is a growing frustration for residents of the East Bank since not only is it a wastage of time, it also increases fuel consumption. From personal experience, commuting from Georgetown to Grove takes a minimum of 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours. A solution would result in improved punctuality for everyone, fewer accidents and more importantly, relief to the mental frustration of the public.
While the residents are aware of the government’s dedication to the improvement of roads, the intervention of the Ministers of Public Works, Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar, to take the appropriate action in providing some relief would be much appreciated. This situation is getting worse day by day. Further, even though works are ongoing on the Grove Public Road to have same widen, it is my opinion that this will not alleviate the traffic congestion. This is because the community of Grove is a business hub and the space being utilized for the road expansion, is the very space used for parking by customers and business owners. In light of the foregoing, the newly constructed space will be occupied by motor vehicles since there will be no other space available for parking. Thus, more inventiveness is required from the office of the Ministry of Public Works to provide supplementary solutions.
Notably, during one of Mr. Edhhill’s visit to Grove, he promised that a bridge will be built to link Diamond Scheme and Grove. This initiative will immensely reduce the congestion of motor vehicles coming out of Diamond to access the main road to Grove and motor vehicles coming out of Grove to access Diamond Scheme. Additionally, this bridge should have been built prior to commencing works on the Grove Public Road since the ongoing works have resulted in the deterioration of the road surface creating large pot holes and corrugation. As a consequence, motor vehicles are required to slow down, which causes a ripple effect, and worsen an already terrible traffic congestion. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this should be done with all urgency to help the decongestion of the traffic.
The new model of housing schemes being developed with one main access road in and out to the public road creates traffic congestion at these junctions. From observation, the older models of housing schemes that were developed with multiple ingresses and egresses to access the major public road(s) allows for the smooth flow of traffic with minimum to no disruption. An example of some of these communities along the East Bank are Covent Garden, (old) Herstelling, and in Georgetown, Kitty and Campbellville etc. Furthermore, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Central Housing and Authority should take into consideration our country’s growing population and its yearly increases of motor vehicles.
On that account, a more futuristic approach is needed to cater for development changes (road expansion) and space should be dedicated to accommodate these changes at a later time. If not, what seems like an economic decision today, to construct minimum roads, will eventually lead to traffic crisis in the future.
Sincerely,
(Name and Address Provided)
