November 16, 2016: While many residents made their way home on Monday 14th November 2016, history was being made in Mayaro. Around 8:30 pm, the Honourable Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister of Public Utilities and his colleague, Senator the Honourable Clarence Rambarath, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries brought light to a previously unlit section of the Naparima Mayaro Road fondly known as “the teak”.
As part of the National Public Lighting Programme, the Ministry of Public Utilities, through T&TEC’s Public Lighting Department (PLD), illuminated one of Mayaro’s notoriously dark stretches. The illumination serves to reinforce the Ministry’s vision to “become an organization dedicated to excellence in the delivery of public utilities for the sustainability of our country and an improved quality of life of its citizenry.”
One of the immediate positive impacts these lights will have on Mayaro, according to Minister Rambharath, is increased agricultural activity for a sustainable lumber industry. The Minister alluded to the fact that the community waited for years for these lights. As a son of the soil himself, he expressed his gratitude for the work of the Public Lighting Department and the illumination of “the teak” since this area was a proverbial black hole.
In his address at the ceremony, Minister Hinds further highlighted the benefits of the roadway being lit. As he did so, he was imagined the astonishment motorists and even residents would encounter when they traversed the area subsequent to the lighting ceremony. Additionally, Minister Hinds assured the residents that this project is in no way the last of its kind. He recounted seven illumination projects undertaken by T&TEC’s Public Lighting Department (PLD) prior to “the teak” and outlined one project that is on the horizon for the residents: the illumination of the other dark spot in the area, the Manzanilla/ Mayaro Road, with the first set of solar powered street lights.
Minister Hinds concluded by stating the Ministry’s commitment to moving the nation’s electrical supply to 10% Renewable Energy by 2021.
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For further information please contact:
The Corporate Communications Unit
Ministry of Public Utilities
868-628-9500 ext. 5300-7