Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

The Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print re­mains in the pro­cure­ment stage, de­spite ini­tial plans for some projects to be­gin this month.

When the mas­sive de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme was un­veiled in No­vem­ber 2025, the Gov­ern­ment in­di­cat­ed that some projects could break ground by Au­gust 2026.

How­ev­er, Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that the ini­tia­tive has not yet moved be­yond pro­cure­ment.

“Still in pro­cure­ment stage,” John said in re­sponse to ques­tions about the pro­gramme’s cur­rent sta­tus.

She nev­er­the­less said progress was be­ing made and de­scribed the process as hav­ing achieved sig­nif­i­cant mile­stones.

She said the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture (MOWI) and the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UDe­COTT) have been pro­vid­ing pe­ri­od­ic up­dates on the pro­gramme and in­di­cat­ed that she in­tends to pro­vide an­oth­er up­date with­in the next two weeks.

“The MOWI/UDe­COTT pro­vides up­dates from time to time and I will do so again at a fo­rum in which I will be speak­ing in two weeks’ time,” John said.

Her lat­est com­ments come al­most two months af­ter she in­di­cat­ed that the pro­gramme was mov­ing clos­er to the con­tract award stage.

In Ju­ly, John said the ini­tia­tive had en­tered the sec­ond stage of the Re­quest for Pro­pos­als (RFP) process and that the Gov­ern­ment was hop­ing to be­gin award­ing con­tracts by Sep­tem­ber or Oc­to­ber.

At the time, she said the blue­print had at­tract­ed 965 re­spons­es from po­ten­tial in­vestors and de­vel­op­ers from around the world.

John al­so said the pro­gramme had ex­pand­ed to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 120 projects and was pro­ject­ed to gen­er­ate about 72,000 jobs at its peak across sec­tors in­clud­ing con­struc­tion, en­gi­neer­ing, tech­nol­o­gy, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, tourism and fi­nance.

The Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print was un­veiled by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in No­vem­ber 2025 as a ma­jor plank of the Gov­ern­ment’s de­vel­op­ment agen­da, aimed at trans­form­ing in­fra­struc­ture, at­tract­ing pri­vate in­vest­ment and gen­er­at­ing em­ploy­ment.

At the launch, the Gov­ern­ment ini­tial­ly pro­ject­ed that the pro­gramme could cre­ate 50,919 jobs, while John said the first projects were ex­pect­ed to break ground by Au­gust 2026.

The blue­print in­cludes ma­jor re­de­vel­op­ment projects across Port-of-Spain, San Fer­nan­do, Ga­le­o­ta and In­vaders Bay, along with pro­pos­als to over­haul the coun­try’s prison in­fra­struc­ture.

Among the flag­ship pro­pos­als is the con­ver­sion of the Car­rera Is­land Prison in­to a 75-room bou­tique re­sort and the trans­for­ma­tion of the Port-of-Spain Prison in­to an ex­hi­bi­tion and events fa­cil­i­ty fea­tur­ing cre­ative spaces, class­rooms and a rooftop restau­rant.

The Gov­ern­ment has al­so pro­posed con­sol­i­dat­ing cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties at a new 500-acre Tamana Prison Cam­pus.

Oth­er projects in­clude the re­de­vel­op­ment of the San Fer­nan­do wa­ter­front, with plans for 1,800 res­i­dences, a ma­ri­na, ho­tel and con­fer­ence cen­tre, as well as the recla­ma­tion of 40 acres at In­vaders Bay for ho­tels, apart­ments, a ma­ri­na and con­ven­tion cen­tre.

Plans have al­so been out­lined for the re­de­vel­op­ment of the Sea Lots In­dus­tri­al Park and Free Trade Zone.