To counter the government's cheerleaders and their propaganda-claiming that the metro is the greatest achievement since independence enabling us to realise the dream of a “modern, liveable, vibrant and environmentally-friendly Smart Mauritius” -we’ll repeat it again and again that the metro is a white elephant -a burden for us, taxpayers, and the future generation. We'll be paying through our nose--that's the gift to us and our younger generation from this irresponsible regime !
Why have they persisted in investing so many billions on such a prestige project, despite the repeated alarm bells of an absence of adequate planning and the great many unknowns and inherent risks, if not to aim at a thorough decongestion of the traffic ?
It has failed in meeting its main objective – of relieving us of the daily discomforts and stress of more frequent traffic jams which are increasingly taking their toll on the economy and society.
We will keep on repeating that the traffic jams haven't improved (see today’s l’express) . It seems that the metro project, as undertaken currently , have not lessened the already hectic traffic hassles. It is mainly bus commuters and few others that have moved to the metro and without the accompanying unavoidable(including greater availability of parking at main metro centres)and hard-hitting measures on private car users to increase the metro’s ridership and shift car users to the metro, we do not think that the metro will succeed in reducing traffic congestion. With this regime bent on winning its electorate with populist measures, we will not succeed in preventing the metro from becoming a white elephant given that the road infrastructure is also being improved !! The Metro does not yet have the critical mass of commuters to breakeven. Last year, if I recall correctly, metro express recorded a loss of Rs526 mn!
This regime does not have a sense of priorities ...it's like the pension populism of Rs 13, 500 ..Cheap populism reflected in the manifestos of all the mainstream political parties ! Can we afford such populist measures ? as I have often argued we have to get our priorities right...When Singapore was implementing its rail transit system, the real GDP growth averaged 8.5% p.a. This enabled Singaporeans to enjoy further rapid increases in living standards; its exports sector was flourishing, its companies were prospering and it was attracting record levels of foreign investments in productive sectors and its foreign reserves stood at some 30 billion dollars (some 6 times our present level). It could thus afford to educate and train its labour force while constructing its infrastructure and building its nation.
We can equally do it if we know our priorities and we drive forward, one step at a time, ensuring that there is audacity and conviction to take bold decisions and a willingness not to succumb to the prestige projects of the day but to the initiation of long term reforms and expenditure prioritisation to chart a new path for Mauritius and a great future for our children.
They are jeopardisng our future; we are struggling both in the export and tourism sectors to do better than the pre-pandemic levels…The BoP has recorded a deficit of Rs 22 billions in the first semester of this year, the inflation rate is as high as 11.9%, one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa , the consolidated budget deficit and the Public Sector Debt are still stuck at catastrophic levels, the capital of the BoM is being impaired rendering it ineffective in controlling inflation …. Are we going the Sri Lankan way ? Sri Lanka indebted to China and we to India -India is so happy to disburse us billions of dollars(the useless Rose-Hill-Cote D'or extension) while we keep on digging holes for ourselves !!!
