Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Five ves­sels - in­clud­ing the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny - are work­ing on the To­ba­go seabridge, so car­go isn’t be­ing “stock­piled” at the Port Au­thor­i­ty, says Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar gave the in­for­ma­tion in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, while re­ply­ing to Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les’s query on whether the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny has re­turned to the seabridge.

Beck­les’ ques­tion was raised in the con­text of com­plaints from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in To­ba­go about the in­con­sis­ten­cy and late­ness of the sail­ings on the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny, which is able to ac­com­mo­date the larg­er car­go ve­hi­cles.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “Let us be re­mind­ed there are five boats serv­ing this To­ba­go air­bridge ... seabridge: T&T Spir­it, Buc­coo Reef, APT James, the Galleon’s Pas­sage and Blue Wave as well.

“I’m ad­vised by the min­is­ter that these four - apart from the Blue Wave - they’re go­ing with about 50 per cent pas­sen­ger ca­pac­i­ty and 70 per cent car­go oc­cu­pan­cy. And the Blue Wave, the min­is­ter has ad­vised, in fact, is cur­rent­ly load­ing for a 2 pm de­par­ture from Port-of-Spain.”

She added, “So, the car­go isn’t ‘stocked up’ or ‘stock­piled’ at the Port be­cause these four oth­er ves­sels have been ser­vic­ing the seabridge; and the Blue Wave is cur­rent­ly load­ing to go to To­ba­go.”