Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is ex­pect­ed to be among of­fi­cials in To­ba­go wel­com­ing the new fer­ry “APT James” af­ter its first trip to the sis­ter is­land to­mor­row.

The ves­sel which leaves Trinidad on Thurs­day morn­ing is ex­pect­ed in To­ba­go by mid­day. This was con­firmed by the Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port and oth­er Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

It was due to en­ter ser­vice be­fore the Jean De La Valette fer­ry leaves Trinidad and To­ba­go when that ves­sel’s con­tract ex­pires month-end.

The “APT James” ar­rived in this coun­try re­cent­ly af­ter its jour­ney from Viet­nam where it was con­struct­ed by Aus­tralia’s Austal com­pa­ny. An­oth­er new pas­sen­ger fer­ry, the “Buc­coo Reef”, built by the In­cat firm, is al­so com­ing to TT next month.

Row­ley’s ex­pect­ed ap­pear­ance fol­lows his Jan­u­ary 9 an­gio­plas­ty at West Shore Med­ical Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal. Af­ter his dis­charge on Jan­u­ary 10, Row­ley who’s cur­rent­ly Cari­com chair­man host­ed a vir­tu­al Cari­com meet­ing on Jan­u­ary 11.

While he has kept a low pro­file pub­licly, of­fi­cials said the Prime Min­is­ter has been work­ing.

Cab­i­net will meet to­day and Row­ley is ex­pect­ed to fly to To­ba­go lat­er to­day where he will al­so be ap­pear­ing at PNM To­ba­go meet­ings tonight and to­mor­row for next Mon­day’s To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, PNM of­fi­cials con­firmed.

Yes­ter­day in the Sen­ate, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said the 94 me­tres long “APT James” cost a to­tal (US)$71.48 mil­lion.

The “Buc­coo Reef “ which is 100 me­tres long cost a to­tal of (US)$72,977 mil­lion.

Im­bert said the cred­it agree­ment arranged with Aus­tralia on the fi­nanc­ing of the ves­sels (and for two Coast Guard pa­trol ves­sels cost­ing US $91.5m ) cov­ers 80 per cent of the to­tal costs.

The “James” is an Austal Au­to Ex­press cata­ma­ran. The crew which brought the ves­sel to TT had to un­der­go two weeks of quar­an­tine af­ter mak­ing the 30 day trip to this coun­try.

The Works Min­istry re­cent­ly dis­missed Op­po­si­tion con­cerns about the boat – but ad­mit­ted cer­tain “mi­nor” is­sues were at­tend­ed to when the ves­sel was in Mal­ta re­cent­ly. The Min­is­ter of Works said these is­sues had noth­ing to do with the ves­sel’s sta­bil­i­ty.

The To­ba­go Cham­ber has wel­comed the new fer­ry, say­ing it is a boost to the is­land’s econ­o­my.