More than one port in La Brea would not create a logistical nightmare, but rather add to the infrastructural development of the community.
So said Vasant Bharath, Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, who accompanied Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar on her two-week trip to China prior to Carnival.
He spoke to the Business Guardian on the benefits of the trip, one of which was a $5 billion loan application.
In a post-Cabinet press conference in early March, Persad-Bissessar said the loan would be used for six new special economic zones, a new transshipment port and a dry dock.
In an interview on Monday, Bharath justified the need for a new port: "There is sufficient space. We have already done the feasibility. There is more than enough space to accommodate what Mr (Deo) Gosine is doing and what we are doing."
Deo Singh is managing director of Labidco Port Services, La Brea.
In a February 20 interview with the Business Guardian, Gosine, who operates a deepwater port in La Brea, said he had a proposal to develop a neighbouring transshipment port to handle 2.5 million containers annually at an estimated cost of US$100 million.
Bharath said the port the Government is proposing would cater for very large vessels ranging between "10 and 15 thousand TEUs (20-foot equivalent units). Currently, the vessels that come through the Panama Canal range between 3,000 and 5,000 TEUs. There would be no other facility in the country or in this part of the world that would be in a position to handle 10,000, 12,000 and 13,000 of TEUs."