Raymond Rivet may be fed up with the authorities. He has made several proposals concerning traffic jams in Port Louis since 1975 during budget debates in the Legislative Assembly. However, none of the successive governments has ever found it useful to implement his project.

Yet, many of them promised to take his suggestions into consideration since they were considated valuable, according to A.H.Osman, minister of Public works at the time. But nothing concrete has ever been done although the situation is becoming more and more serious during peak hours.

According to Raymond Rivet, about 26,000 vehicles enter the capital every day between 7a.m and 10a.m and 11,000 are in Port-Louis between 8a.m and 9a.m. As a result, there is a ?major hold-up of the traffic on the motorway at the southern entrance of the capital (?) The trip is four times longer, which leads to a high consumption of petrol and an increase in air pollution.? He believes that this major traffic jam costs an additional Rs 1 billion a year and people are late getting to work.

Raymond Rivet has thus made a new proposal to solve the problem. The government had asked a Singaporean expert, Professor Gopinath Menon, to come to Mauritius to propose a solution. In his report, he stated that the implementation of a toll fee for motorists was premature and he favoured the Ring Road theory.

<B>Tunnels and ringroads</B>

The government had already thought of building a Ring Road ? a tunnel through Coin Bluff mountain ? but thiscould not be implemented because of squatters. Raymond Rivet proposed an alternative solution in 2001: the Pailles-Guibies-Port-Louis Ring Road with a tunnel through Goat Rock-Snail Rock mountain. It would go from Pailles Branch Road to the capital.

This proposal offers many advantages, according to Raymond Rivet. Amongst others, the fact that work could start as soon as the plans are finalised and the contract allocated. It could thus bring an important reduction in traffic at both entrances of the capital.

More importantly, it would be a first step towards the Moka-Guibies-Port-Louis Ring Road presented in the report submitted to the minister of Public infrastructures, Deva Virahsamy in 1998. The minister showed much interest in this project since it had two main advantages: direct access from Moka and Port-Louis to the Pailles race-course and a short-cut for motorists from the eastern region to reach Port-Louis. Raymond Rivet organised two site visits with the minister and the director of Consulting Engineering Services, M.A.K. Lal.

In 1999, the latter said that the project should be approved but was still under study. Five years later, it seems that it is at a standstill?