La Reunion Island is set to break a world record for wasting public money on the construction of a 12-kilometer road. The initial budget was 1.6 billion euros. It was used to build half the road. To build the other half, the Region and the State have pledged at least 800 million euros. And that’s not all: a consortium are claiming 971 million euros in unpaid and additional costs from the Region for the half-offshore road, which was built with great difficulty.
On September 17, a hearing took place at the Saint-Denis administrative court. The subject of the hearing was the dispute between the consortium Bouygues-Vinci - and the regional majority, which is responsible for managing Didier Robert’s legacy. Deliberation is scheduled for October 22.
It all began with a regional election in 2010. At the time, the Region, led by Paul Vergès, had obtained the participation of the State and Europe in the financing of two major projects: the tram-train and the new coastal road. The agreement was signed in 2007. Work on the tram-train quickly got underway. Work on the new coastal road was delayed, as the State was responsible for this project at the time. In total, just over 2 billion euros were mobilized for these two projects, which were due to be completed in 2012 for the train, and 2017 for the NRL.
When Didier Robert took over as President of Région Réunion, he gave in to the all-car and fossil fuel lobbies. He halted these two major projects and replaced them with an offshore road. The planned budget was 1.6 billion euros. After two terms as President of the Region, Didier Robert and his friends have only managed to build half the road. And it’s clear that the budget was more than exhausted, because for this part, the beneficiaries of the public contracts are demanding almost a billion more to compensate for the extra costs.
If we add the 800 million euros needed to build the second half of the road, this would make a total of 3.5 billion euros for 12 kilometers. This is an enormous waste of public money.
With 3.5 billion euros, how much useful infrastructure could have been built in La Réunion Island? How many jobs could have been created by supporting economic development?
With such a sum, thousands of kilometers of national roads in Madagascar could have been built or rehabilitated.
This situation stems from a decision taken to satisfy particular interests to the detriment of the general interest. It underlines La Réunion Island’s underdevelopment: abundant public money thrown into the sea.
In the end, it will be the Réunionese and French taxpayers who will foot the bill.

M.M.