Nobody knows just how high the price of progress is better than Salim Hosein, president of the pipeline construction company API Holdings Company Ltd. Hosein is just one of several businesses affected by the construction of the 47-kilometre Point Fortin Highway project. Hosein's million-dollar industrial company, which occupies 22 acres of land at Siparia Old Road, Fyzabad, is directly in the way of the original plans for the highway. API, established 23 years ago when it was known as Feroze Hosein and Son, occupies 22 acres of land. There's another 25 acres behind that area, of which Hosein's family owns five acres. The company has six rigs. This space includes a 80,000 square feet of fabrication and mechanical shop space. It is equipped with rollers, blenders, lathes, welding sets, computerised directional underground boring machine and related equipment, wash base, full engineering offices, warehousing, staff car park, administration building and lunch room. On the top floor is a restaurant to service employees and customers. Next to the restaurant is an auditorium that's rented out for social events. On the five acres are a sand blasting and coating facility, concrete block and batching plant and a 300-foot long and 50-foot wide laydown (storage) facility. In an interview at his air-conditioned Fyzabad office around 5.30 pm on Monday, Hosein said the estimated value of his 22-acre property is $64 million. Hosein believes the construction of the Pt Fortin Highway could easily cost the Government $25 billion "and they may not even be able to complete it at that cost." The cost of the Pt Fortin Highway has been put at $7.5 billion. "I do not think that the Government sat down and really count the cost," Hosein said.
API's three properties to go
Hosein explained that while the Pt Fortin Highway may cut through two-fifths of his space, it would definitely affect his entire operations and the company would have to relocate. He complained about the poor communication from the Government, that he's uncertain of how much of his property would be taken. "The splitting and the disruption of my land are going to do tremendous damage to my operations. I would not be able to stay here when they cut through my land." The company's core business is cross-country pipeline construction. It provides horizontal directional drilling, tank construction, structural steel erection, process piping, plant maintenance and turnaround, and civil and infrastructure construction. There's great sentimental value in this business for Hosein, who took over the business in 2000 from his father Feroze.
"I would like the State to tell me what I going to do with this business? I will just end up with some buildings on my hands. It's a process and they are cutting off major parts of my process. My operations need space."
Hosein questioned the cost of him having to move. "I can't afford it!"
He detailed the likely cost of relocating:
• The 22 acres is roughly valued at $64 million
• The laydown storage, which took three months to put down, cost $2 million
• Four of the 12 acres he owns at Saltmine Trace, Fyzabad, which would be used for the highway, is valued at $2 million. There's a halt on approved development plans for that spot.
• On the five acres, API recently built a 200-foot foundation for $1 million for a second fabricating shop, excluding the value of the land.
• More than $200 million invested in cross-country pipeline equipment
• Compensation for disturbance and the loss of business
"I would like to know how fair they are in their compensation."
Kardway: One step ahead
Even though the construction of the highway would cause major disruptions to residents and companies, Kamaludeen Ghanny, founder/chief executive officer of Kardway Contractors Ltd, said, "I am very optimistic about the highway, as its one of the best things planned for development." The company provides industrial cleaning services, water blasting, confined space cleaning, wet dry vacuum services. Kardway was established in 1978, began exploration for and production of oil in 1995. Ghanny admitted that while he supports the highway, he feels very disheartened over having to move part of his business which he built over the last 34 years. He said the highway would be cutting into one-and-a half-acres of his land, worth $1 million, where he has his $2 million warehouse with $3 million in equipment. Kardway is registered with some of the major industrial/oil companies in T&T: Petrotrin (all locations) bpTT (land and offshore), PCS Nitrogen, Yara Trinidad Ltd and all other petrochemical companies based in Point Lisas. The $2 million mosque that Ghanny, an imam, built for the Premiere Consolidated Oilfield (PCO) community, has to go. The mosque is about 500 metres from Kardway. Twenty homes within the PCO community would be relocated. Ghanny is one step head of the Government. Already, he has mapped out a plan for the mosque and the 20 affected families who wish to be relocated.