Geisha Kow­lessar

The Gov­ern­ment is ex­pect­ed to be­gin the process of Re­quest for Pro­pos­al for pa­trol ves­sels for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard by next month. Re­tired Com­modore An­tho­ny Franklin, chair­man of the com­mit­tee for the ac­qui­si­tion of naval ves­sels, said yes­ter­day that a host of in­ter­est­ed com­pa­nies had re­spond­ed to an ad­ver­tise­ment placed by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry last month per­tain­ing to re­quest for in­for­ma­tion. The ad, which al­so drew the in­ter­est of sev­er­al in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies, stat­ed that the Gov­ern­ment was in­ter­est­ed in ac­quir­ing pa­trol ves­sels of proven de­sign for the T&T De­fence Force.

The ves­sels are in­tend­ed for op­er­a­tions in the ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters and ex­clu­sive eco­nom­ic zone around Trinidad and To­ba­go and for re­gion­al op­er­a­tions in the south­ern Caribbean. These op­er­a­tions will in­clude search and res­cue, law en­force­ment and hu­man­i­tar­i­an op­er­a­tions based on Gov­ern­ment's di­rec­tives, agree­ments and treaties with neigh­bour­ing is­lands. Ac­cord­ing to Franklyn, the process to re­view the sub­mit­ted in­for­ma­tion was al­ready ini­ti­at­ed. De­scrib­ing the process as "very lengthy and painful" Franklyn said: "We have got a rea­son­able re­sponse. "The re­view process has start­ed and we're look­ing at the end of Oc­to­ber for it to be com­plet­ed," he said.

"But what is of more im­por­tance was when the Re­quest for Pro­pos­al be­gan which we're hop­ing would be by No­vem­ber." He said he was not yet cer­tain what length of ves­sel Gov­ern­ment would be re­quir­ing. "The in­for­ma­tion we have gath­ered would help us de­ter­mine that...A boat can­not be bought off the shelf you have to or­der it ac­cord­ing to the spec­i­fi­ca­tions that you may re­quire," Franklin added. He said he was not yet sure how many ves­sels would be or­dered, adding that it would de­pend on how much mon­ey the State was will­ing to spend.