The government, through the Ministry of Public Works and Communications, ordered this Wednesday the start of construction work on the road that connects the agricultural areas of El Pinar de Ocoa, promised in campaign by President Luis Abinader.
The road would have an investment of more than 300 million pesos, and will communicate El Pinar down with the sections of La Mesa de Domingo, Los Tramojos- La Isleta, among others, an area of major avocado production, not only in the province of San José de Ocoa, but also in the Caribbean region, and which has been claimed for years.
Minister Deligne Ascención’s disposition was announced in his office, while receiving two representative commissions from San José de Ocoa province, including the pro-road committee of El Pinar-Los Tramojos, La Mesa de Domingo, composed of businessmen and agricultural producers, who had been fighting for more than 30 years for the construction of that road, with a length of more than 14 kilometers.
“It is a very productive area, one of the main avocado producers in the Caribbean region, not only in the Dominican Republic, and we have informed the representatives that we are instructing the beginning of the works, whose investment will be close to 300 million pesos”, he explained.
Speaking before the commissioners who visited him, Ascención announced that the claim and request has been considered by President Luis Abinader, “who has instructed us to proceed to solve a problem that the various communities in the area have been waiting for more than 30 years”.
The minister said that this Wednesday equipment was sent to begin work on the road, which will connect dozens of communities in one of the most productive areas of the country.
Congresswoman Altagracia Encarnación (Yari), who headed one of the commissions, said she was very happy and grateful for the announcement of the start of the work.
“The truth is that the government headed by President Abinader has shown that he does keep his promises, because this was a campaign promise, and thanks to God, to the effort of our government that he is putting through this Ministry of Public Works.”
While the director of the board of El Pinar, Garis Alexander Pujols, also thanked President Abinader and Minister Ascención “for having responded to the call, and that today it is announced that this work will be a reality”.
Also present in the commission that visited Minister Ascención were Carlos Manuel Minyeti, Luis Amable Suárez Jáquez, Rafael Proscopio Mordán, Luis Ernesto Báez, Rafael Ornelis Quezada, Luis Bienvenido Minyeti, Wilson Arias Santana, Américo Gerónimo and Pedro Franklin Victorio.
Also attending the meeting were Aneudy Ortiz Sajium, mayor of the San José de Ocoa municipality; Juan Bautista Mordán, former director of the El Pinar municipal district; Raúl Gerónimo, Nilson Mordán and Julio Mordán.
José Manuel Calderón, spokesman for the commissioners of El Pinar, said that the visit to the minister was made up of businessmen and agricultural producers from a variety of sectors, who “are tired of demanding from all the governments that have passed, the construction of a quality highway that guarantees safety for production and for the life of the people”.
He expressed that accidents occur very frequently on this road and that, due to its poor condition, the products often reach the people and the markets with poor quality.
The mayor of the municipality of San José de Ocoa, Aneudy Ortiz Sajium, thanked Minister Ascención “for the reception he has given us”, and recalled that “this fight has been going on for more than three decades in one of the most productive areas of the province of San José de Ocoa, and we are leaving here very happy”.
He said that President Luis Abinader was aware of the situation of the road, as was Minister Ascención, and that there was official interest in finding a definitive solution to the problem.
