The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

A WELL-known businessman yesterday said it would cost his company between $150,000-$200,000 to tie five locations into the new roads created by the New Providence Transportation Programme, describing the issue as "a substantial burden" for many Bahamian-owned businesses.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, president of the Superwash laundromat chain, told Tribune Business many of the roads had been "raised" by two feet, creating a major issue for customers trying to access his locations - and other businesses - on those strips.

Adding that Superwash would also likely need to invest a further $80,000-$100,000 to "redo the parking lot" at his Blue Hills Road/Carmichael Road location, after half of it was seized by the roadworks project, Mr D'Aguilar said these issues had created "a real cost" for his business in both time and money.

Describing the situation as "very vexing", he added: "No one in government seems to care."

Looking at the larger picture surrounding the New Providence Transport Programme, the Superwash president told Tribune Business: "The cost of this project to the country has been ruinous, $100 million over budget, and we're now paying more than $200 million to get these roads.

"The cost of this to the business community has been absolutely enormous, not only in lost revenue, not only the difficulty of getting around this country as a result of this project.

"No one seems to realise that when they built these roads, they don't connect to your business. They've raised the roads by two feet, and there's now a big drop to my business. How are they going to get into my business? I now have to go out as a business person and figure out how people get from these roads into my place of business without dropping two feet."

Suggesting that the Government was unlikely to have allocated funds in the 2012-2013 Budget for this purpose, Mr D'Aguilar told Tribune Business: "By the time I add those five locations together, it's going to cost between $150,000-$200,000 to tie them into these new roads.

"It's a real cost, and no one in government seems to care. It's very vexing. These new roads leave you high and dry, or low and flooded."

The Superwash president noted that the roads projects and its main contractor, the Argentinean company Jose Cartellones Civiles, had taken action to rectify the flooding problems on Blue Hill Road once businesses there complained en masse that the new one-way system there was creating the problems due to its elevated level.

This, though, had not happened elsewhere on the New Providence Transportation Programme, and Mr D'Aguilar said his Robinson Road head office was a classic example of the problems that were being caused.

"It's a corner location, and they built the road high around my office, so that when it rains I'm in a pool," he noted, asking rhetorically: "Do I have to wait five years, do I have to wait 10 years?" before the problem is rectified.

"It's these details that are so frustrating," Mr D'Aguilar told Tribune Business. "They're so focused on building big roads, and all these niggly details that come behind they just ignore it.

"It's mind boggling, and we're creating a substantial burden for a lot of businesses in time and money, and how to get my business connected to these roads. There ain't no money for that in the Budget. Not only do I have to pay extra taxes for these roads, I have to spend additional monies connecting into these roads."

And, when it came to Superwash's Blue Hill Road/Carmichael location, Mr D'Aguilar said the Government and contractor "didn't have the decency to come to me" and inform him that half the parking lot was being expropriated by the project.

"Their response is: 'Suck it up and deal with it. It's your business, so it's up to you to deal with it'," he added.

Mr D'Aguilar said the Government should tell Jose Cartellones Civiles that it "can't handle a project of this size", and force it to sub-contract more of the remaining work out to competent Bahamian companies.

"We need to sub-contract some of this work out to private Bahamian companies who can do that niggly, time-consuming work on time and on-budget," the Superwash president said.