More changes are coming at the Port Authority of T&T.
Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan is “pushing for” the Tobago seabridge to be completely removed from its purview and placed under a new company.
Sinanan detailed the plan during yesterday’s 2019 Budget debate in Parliament. He admitted the seabridge had caused a lot of agony for both Trinidad and Tobago, adding when he assumed office he’d been faced with a “looming crisis about to explode.” He said he was referring to the T&T Inter-island Transport company, a PATT subsidiary which was managing the seabridge.
“I don’t want to get into who was right or wrong, or who said what or didn’t say, or whose fault it was—that was the subject of three investigations, most significantly by Parliament’s Joint Select Committee,” Sinanan said.
He said problems included lack of vision and planning for what Government wanted to do on the seabridge, lack of proper maintenance of vessels, insufficient training for locals to handle vessel maintenance and lack of accountability and responsibility for seabridge operations.
Sinanan said solutions included getting a competent team to manage/maintain vessels and training of locals to maintain them. He said the new team is already “on board and aware of their obligations.”
He said he would be “pushing firmly” for removal of the seabridge from the Port Authority and placing it under a new company with a separate board.
“The new company will have the skillset for an efficient, effective and reliable seabridge and inter-island sea transport system. The new company will also be responsible for the Port-of-Spain/San Fernando water taxis,” he added.
“This separation of duties will enable the Port Authority to reorganise itself so it can compete and be on par with upgraded ports of the region.”
In March at the height of ferry issues, Sinanan had hinted a tender would have been advertised for a management company to take over seabridge and water taxi operations. He’d said then he wasn’t convinced there was in-house capability concerning the vessels’ maintenance.
The Port Authority will be making a presentation on the restructuring of operation to Cabinet this week, he said.
Other plans to revive the seabridge include replacing old ferries with new fast ferries, he said, noting these ferries were ordered from Australia for delivery in 2020. Tenders also close shortly for the lease of an additional ferry. He said if “things go as intended,” the leased ferry will supplement the T&T Spirit and Galleons Passage on the seabridge until the new fast ferries arrive.
Sinanan said when the two Australian vessels arrive in 2020 and begin operating from PoS to Tobago, the leased ferry will no longer be used and the T&T Express will be put up for sale. At that time, the Galleons Passage will be put on the projected Toco ferry port run. Tenders are also currently being issued for another cargo vessel.
He said this week’s start of Galleons Passage sailings takes Tobago seat capacity back up to 1,500. He said the current cargo vessel was also working in an “acceptable manner at 60 per cent of peak cargo requirements.”
“...The seabridge is back to normal and will be getting better with this turnaround,” Sinanan declared.
He said a forensic audit recommended by the JSC committee will also be done into the tendering process for the Super Fast Galicia and all the circumstances surrounding it.