PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

The Cabo Star will re­main as the car­go ves­sel in op­er­a­tion along on the seabridge be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go for an ad­di­tion­al two years.

Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan con­firmed the re­new­al of the ves­sel’s con­tract at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing but said its dai­ly lease cost had been re­duced in the new con­tract.

“NID­CO went to Bridge­man, the own­ers of the Cabo Star, which was the pre­ferred sup­pli­ers, one of the short­list­ed sup­pli­ers and they had a re­duc­tion in their price so at this point in time, this morn­ing Cab­i­net have ac­cept­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion from NID­CO that we re­new the con­tract for the Cabo Star for a fur­ther two years at a re­duced rate of $16,000 US per day,” said Sinanan, who ex­plained this was $5,000 less than the cur­rent $21,000 per day con­tract.

This arrange­ment was made af­ter the Gov­ern­ment’s deal with Ste­na Ro­Ro was can­celled af­ter that com­pa­ny told NID­CO they could no longer pro­vide a ves­sel at an al­ready agreed price. NID­CO sim­i­lar­ly could not fi­nalise deals with the sec­ond and third-choice ten­ders and re­opened ne­go­ti­a­tions with Bridge­man for use of the Cabo Star. Sinanan said the new deal was even more favourable than the one agreed.

“When you con­sid­er the rate of the MV Ker­ry, which was the pre­ferred at the time, it was $20,500. The provider then sent a let­ter in­di­cat­ing to NID­CO that they can­not do it for less than $23,300 so NID­CO ter­mi­nat­ed the ne­go­ti­a­tions with them,” he said.

He said the seabridge should ex­pect the ar­rival of a new APT James ves­sel in No­vem­ber, while an­oth­er ves­sel to ser­vice the route will ar­rive in the first quar­ter of 2021.

“All in­di­ca­tions are that the ves­sels are on track at this point in time and we look for­ward to the ar­rival of the first ves­sel, the APT James, some­time lat­er on this year,” Sinanan said.