With the Metro Express and the attempted forced removal of reluctant residents in La Butte and Cité Barkly hitting the headlines recently, Weekly speaks to Anil Bachoo, former minister of public infrastructure in the previous government, about his take on the whole situation. He explains how the current project differs from that of the Light Rail Transit his government proposed and breaks down the cost difference.  He also enthusiastically enumerates the road decongestion projects that were completed under his watch.              

The Metro Express is making the news headlines these days. For the benefit of our readers, we would like you to shed some light on the various aspects involved in it. Let’s start with the cost. Are you feeling bad that it will cost less than it would have under your government?

No! In fact, I am feeling sad because the government is not telling the truth. Any project that you undertake, you should bear in mind that it is taxpayers’ money that you will use to pay for it and that taxpayers’ money should be spent judiciously. You don’t play politics with projects. When you plan a project, you are not planning it for tomorrow, or for the next election, but for the generations to come.

What is the relevance of this? You introduced a project which you did not manage to go ahead with, and they are introducing the same project at a lower cost. Where is the problem?

There is a very big problem. The Light Rail Transit project – like every other project that we have done – was properly designed and planned.  We retained the services of top international consultants.  In this particular case, we had appointed the Singaporeans. There was no political interference or any other petty considerations. It was properly designed and would have been implemented without any problem. All this government has done, on the other hand, is cut and paste.

Good! If they cut and pasted your project and are delivering it at a lower cost, they should be congratulated, shouldn’t they?

The funny thing is that though they copy-pasted, they still managed to mess it up through the changes they made supposedly to cut cost! Our project was a light rail system going from Curepipe to Port Louis that was going to be on an elevated lane in various places. That has changed tremendously and the new project – the tramway – is going to be implemented on ground level, affecting so many houses. Besides, our Mauritius Light Rapid Transit (MLRT) plan was integrated with future projects such as Highlands City and the master plan of Medine, Coromandel, Bagatelle and the north and south of Mauritius. It did not go through the Vieux Quatre Bornes road as we deliberately wanted to avoid uprooting 350 houses there. The MLRT would have gone on an elevated lane as from the Phoenix roundabout and would have been connected to the interchange combining all the three roundabouts.  The interchange in this particular area had already been designed and finalised by the SPP, the consultants under the Labour government. The new government has downgraded that interchange.  Besides, there is absolutely no traffic management plan during the construction period. The Metro Express will go through towns uprooting everything on its way and causing even more traffic congestion. I believe that the government is not even aware of all these problems.

How can they not be aware if the consultant advising them is the same Singaporean consultant that you were dealing with?

The consultant advises according to what the client asks for. And what they asked for is a diluted, slipshod version of what we had planned. We had a government and a prime minister with a futuristic vision. A statesman, even at the cost of unpopularity, will do everything in the nation’s interest. A petty politician, on the other hand, cannot see past the end of his nose. We had proposed a park-and-ride facility next to Phoenix Les Halles to integrate with MLRT project through an elevated stop. That elevated stop would have been a link to the IVTB building for a pedestrian passage. The park-and-ride system would have provided around 400 parking spaces for the commuters.  What that means is that you could park your car there, go up the stairs and get on the metro. None of these measures have been included in the tramway project.  

You didn’t expect them to follow your plan to the letter, did you?

In that case, where is their plan? Where do people park? How do they get to the metro after parking? And let’s not forget Arab Town – we were protecting it; they are doing away with it!

Was Arab Town not going to be erased in your project?

No, obviously it was not! The metro, as per our design, would have been on an elevated lane, while the Arab Town traders would have carried on with their normal activities. The same concept would have been applied throughout a major part of Vandermeersch. Where is all this now?

What about La Butte and Cité Barkly?

Both in La Butte and Cité Barkly, the metro would have been elevated.

What? The government spokesperson, Etienne Sinatambou, says that is not true and that you had planned to destroy some houses and compensate the squatters there.

Sinatambou can say what he wants. I maintain that both in La Butte and in Cité Barkly, our metro would have been elevated. There were very few houses affected – not all of them squatters by the way – and we were negotiating with their inhabitants and proposing alternative sites. There was no question of harassing people or throwing them out of their houses.

How many houses would you have had to demolish?

In 2013, all acquisitions were completed except for 21 properties in the whole country. Did you hear any complaints about acquisition? No! That’s because we were dealing with things in a humane way. I have been minister of public infrastructure for over 15 years.  All the infrastructural work, including roads and government buildings which were constructed over the last 15 years were undertaken by my ministry.  Have you ever seen bulldozers destroying homes and people and their children being thrown onto the street?

Without playing politics, how did you deal with squatters and landowners when you were building the Ring Road Phase II?

Good question! There were about 30 squatters as well as landowners.  Government had to find alternative sites in Pointe-aux-Sables to relocate the squatters. Another vivid example is the Harbour Bridge project which had to be shelved. When it was brought to the attention of the former prime minister that 93 plots of land had to be acquired, and that it was causing intense hardship to inhabitants of lower income groups, though he had been a strong defender of the Harbour Bridge, he himself advised that the project be shelved because he didn't believe in any type of modern development with an inhumane face.

How come that humanity disappeared when it came to Jin Fei?

Jin Fei was an agricultural lease but there were many who had constructed houses on agricultural land.  The then-government legalised those houses and not a single building was pulled down.  The key word has always been dialogue. All the leaseholders were compensated or received land to build new homes.

What about those who had built illegally on state land?

They were all regularised!

Do you mean we had to pay even though they had illegally occupied government land?

All those squatters who were regularised already had an agricultural lease on their land and had already constructed their buildings and were staying there.  So, on humanitarian grounds and as a caring government, we regularised those leases and we converted them into residential ones.  The forceful pulling down of people’s homes has never been in our culture. Our objective was to enhance people’s lives, rich and poor.

Since we are talking about taxpayers’ money, let’s go back to the cost of the project. How much cheaper is the new project?

They are claiming it will cost Rs18.8 billion. Ours would have cost Rs24.8 billion.

That’s a huge difference, isn’t it?

Yes, it is! Here’s how they have achieved that: They did not include the preliminaries in the cost – preconditioned works, construction of a depot at Richelieu, fencing, securing a corridor, relocating underground facilities, Environment Impact Assessment of depots etc. All this would have cost Rs4 billion.

They still have to pay for that, don’t they?

Yes, but you know what they will do? They will ask different departments to shoulder different parts of the cost. And then they will come and say “we have saved Rs4 billion”, but they have not. They have simply transferred the cost to the Central Water Authority, the Central Electricity Board, the Road Development Authority and other parastatal bodies. This is malicious window-dressing budgeting.

Even if you include that, it still does not amount to Rs24 billion?

It will when we include all the missing items. For the 25-year concession period, a sum of approximately Rs2 billion was earmarked for the maintenance of the rolling stock. This has been removed from the present agreement.  This component of the project will have to be re-negotiated sooner or later and, in all likelihood, the sum will definitely go up.  Then there are the electricity and supplies charges which have been excluded in this project. So where is the money they saved? All this is a masquerade; they are just cheating the public. That’s not even talking about cost overruns and the cost of the land acquisition which, by the way, were not included in cost of the Metro Express. 

So the cost is the same. Where is the problem?

The cost is the same – in fact slightly more – but the project is not the same. The problem is on technical and practical issues. There is a big difference between an elevated metro and a tramway which will cause even more traffic congestion. 

Tell me exactly how this project is different from yours.

Our LRT was based on traction capabilities, with a maximum speed of 110 km/h. It was URBOS while their project is a URBOS-AXL, low floor trams with a maximum speed of 80 km/h. Ours would have allowed a 70% seating capacity. Theirs is 50%. This government is providing 18 trains; we were going to provide 25 trains, plus three additional spare ones. And they dare say they have saved cost? They have in fact increased the cost tremendously when you compare like with like.

You also said that you were going to transport merchandise? How would you do that in a passenger train?

Indeed, our project was designed to allow for the transport of goods to main stations at night, and lorry stations were identified. Now, we would have charged for transporting those goods, which would have been more advantageous in two ways: first, reduce the number of trucks on the road and secondly have an additional income which would have allowed us to maintain the fares similar to those of buses.

This government has said it will do that too, without having to transport goods at night…

Yes, they have said they will do that too, just like they have promised a lot of things, which now they are doing the exact opposite of. The examples are innumerable.  Have they come forward to explain how they will achieve what they are promising? They haven’t! The project they have initiated is half-baked, more costly and will be a disaster. We have no lessons to take from them in that respect.

One lesson you can take is how to get a Rs10 billion grant from India. Isn’t that going to make the project more affordable for the country?

It is not a grant! What the previous government had not done in 10 years, this government undid in a few days. To give up your basic acquired rights is so easy. But to fight for a cause is difficult. I am talking about the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), and we were perfectly right to stick to our guns. This government was happy to mortgage our children’s future. Don’t forget, India did make a similar offer when we were in government but, as a responsible government, we did not take it. India is a friendly country and when India sneezes we catch a cold in Mauritius. However, that does not mean we give up our rights. We would have got a donation if we gave up the DTAA. We are a sovereign nation. This government wants to go the easy way; we are used to work. And through hard work we were going to pay for the LRT. And, while keeping our heads high, we got a loan at 0.8% interest which is the lowest available. This government has contracted a loan at 1.8%! So, you give up your rights, beg and then give everything in your begging bowl back to the one who gave it to you? And that’s how you finance the Metro Express?

Let’s move to employment. How many people were going to lose their jobs?

We had a subcommittee composed of representatives of bus companies and the government then gave a guarantee that these people would be redeployed. They could be employed for feeder buses or other lines. A course at the University of Technology Mauritius had also started with the aim to train Mauritians in logistics and transport so that they could become eligible for employment in the MLRT sector.  Moreover, training for the employees of the bus industry was also envisaged so that they could be redeployed.  Hence, there was no such noise…

What do you mean there was no noise. Most people were opposed to the project.

With any project you initiate, you are bound to face problems. However, these problems were minimal as we were looking at issues from a humane point of view. We were not throwing people out of their homes and businesses the way this government is doing. We have never done that. We built kilometres of roads and there were no human tragedies.

Talking about roads, the Terre Rouge/Verdun road you bragged so much about collapsed as soon as you left the government. What went wrong?

Ministers don’t do the construction work themselves, but they have a duty to act if there is a problem. That is when you know how competent they are. When Ring Road Phase I was completed, there was a big crack. When that happened, I had to accept responsibility as the Road Development Authority (RDA) fell under me. Within 24 hours, we were able to situate the responsibility and the Rs150 million that was going to be paid to the contractor was retained until he repaired the damage. I can give you hundreds of examples of road collapses in France, India, China, USA, Japan, etc.  We are all helpless before the wrath of God.

In the case of the M3, there was an exchange of correspondence between the consultant and the RDA and the latter was aware that there were issues…

First, let me just say that the problem occurred with only 200 metres out of 28 kilometres!

Isn’t that bad enough?

I am not saying it’s OK but the government deliberately made it sound as if the whole road had collapsed and they mishandled the whole thing, overdramatising and fear mongering. The RDA was a client and there was a consultant and a contractor.  The consultant was responsible for the preparation of the design and the alignment.  He was also responsible for the supervision of the work till its completion.  The contractor takes orders from the consultant and executes the work.  Therefore, the entire responsibility of the project falls on them. The present government should have undertaken a thorough investigation before arriving at any conclusion.

The contractor did send a letter to the RDA saying that there was a problem.

According to the law, the consultant was the engineer of the project. The RDA had no right to interfere. My ministry dealt only with the consultant. It was his duty to supervise everything and approve the payments to the contractor. As far as I am aware, if there was any structural problem, the consultants would have had to take responsibility. Instead of having a proper enquiry and making the consultant shoulder his responsibility, the government rushed to suspend two RDA engineers and dismissed another two without any investigation at all. Worse, they have spent Rs30 million on a side road and, guess what happened? There was a crack on that too, but the MBC turned a blind eye to it! It’s only after nearly three years that they have started repairing the 200m stretch of road, while the Labour government constructed the 28km of that road within two years.

I see you are itching to tell me about the roads you built. Go ahead; you won’t get a second chance.

(Laughs and jumps on the opportunity) For the road decongestion programme, our prime minister said it should be done throughout the country. So, we started with Wooton in two phases and then came up to Quartier Militaire, where we constructed the St Pierre bypass because we wanted to decongest that part of the country. Then we built the Flacq bypass, Schoenfield bypass, the Triolet bypass and then the Goodlands bypass and duelling the road from Pamplemousses to Grand Baie. We started a third lane from Phoenix all the way to Port Louis, and the Caudan interchange.  Nouvelle France-La Flora road was enlarged and then we built the Phoenix and Beau Songes new road.  There were many other projects in the pipeline. The Letter of Intent for the re-construction and enlargement of Providence–Quartier Militaire to Poste de Flacq/Constance road had already been issued to the contractor for the sum of Rs916 million.  The Labour government had already contracted a loan of Rs300 million, part of the cost, from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA).  For reasons known only to the present holders of power, the project was cancelled. After nearly three years, the government decided to construct only that part of the road which covers constituency no.8, which means that the prince must get everything. This is absurd, ridiculous and indecent. The rest of the country can go to the dogs! Design for the construction of Flic-en-Flac bypass was also being finalised.  Three years have passed and nothing concrete has taken place yet.  The duel motorway from Bel Air to Forbach (30km) was also in the pipeline.  Even this mega project has been cancelled.

That’s not fair. Pravind Jugnauth has just inaugurated a road in the south.

(Bursts out in laughter) And a bus stop in Réduit! Do you see any congestion where the road was built? We had built a dual carriageway that goes all the way to the airport.

At least they thought about it.

(Shakes his head) That road was planned by us. All clearances had been given by the RDA.

Why didn’t you build it?

What for? At that time, our government had taken the decision not to finance that road. It was the Airports of Mauritius and the private sector that were supposed to finance it. We had given clearance to the designs and we were supposed to give technical advice. The money was supposed to come from those who were going to benefit from it. It was of no interest to the rest of the country. But what happened? All of a sudden, there was no need for decongestion where people get stuck in traffic! Instead, let’s build a Rs600 million road in an area where there is absolutely no congestion. Whose interests are you representing? Where is the 30 kilometre-road from the east to the north from Bel Air to Forbach whose plans were prepared by us?

I will now give you a gift question: How do you feel about your leader having another provisional charge against him dropped?

Last week, the last and 10^th provisional charge was struck out by the court. The court highlighted the fact that more than 29 months have elapsed since the provisional charge had been lodged and yet the authorities had not been able to substantiate the accusations made against Navin Ramgoolam. This clearly shows that all the charges brought against him, myself, the CEO of Betamax, the directors of the BAI, as well as civil servants were nothing else but part of a political vendetta. All these cases have been struck out by the different courts. Since they came to power, the main and most important occupation of this government has been a campaign of destruction and witch hunting.  Their main target has been Ramgoolam because they know that he is the only leader who can once again rally the whole country around him to thwart their plans.

There will still be a main case, though!

The court has pointed out that the authorities have not been able to substantiate the case in more than 29 months. This case has been dragging on for nearly three years now and the prosecution has up to now failed to launch the main case.  Let us see what the authorities will do in one month that could not be established in 29 months. I believe in divine justice and have faith in our judiciary.