THE Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport is expected to spend $742 million on a number of road improvement projects across the island, under the ministry’s five-year Parish Infrastructure Development Programme (PIDP).

Project manager for the PIDP, Raymond Silvera, said the second phase of the PIDP’s parochial road improvement programme was scheduled to begin shortly in each of the island’s 14 parishes, with fixed expenditure of between $40 million and $50 million for each parish.

The PIDP programme is scheduled to end in 2005.

“The ministry’s target is to carry out 15 kilometres of road rehabilitation in each local authority,” Silvera said. In the first phase of the project, which was completed towards the end of last year, the project manager said that seven kilometres of roadway had been upgraded in all local authorities. He added that for the project’s second phase, work would be carried out on eight kilometres.

He noted that to date, 95 kilometres of parochial roads had been repaired, and that an additional 100 kilometres are to be completed “towards the end of this year or early next year”.

The road rehabilitation exercise is one of the major objectives of the PIDP to maintain parish infrastructure in a sustainable manner. Another objective is to improve the capacity of local authorities to deliver basic services.

The PIDP, which began three years ago, is funded jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government.