$25M for Pan Trinbago’s HQ

“We are very clear; we need to move quickly to ensure we complete a user-brief with Pan Trinbago, to go back to the original plan, or if they have new thinking on the matter. So we need to validate that user brief. We need to get contractors on board,” said Dr Roodal Moonilal, Minister of Housing and the Environment during a site visit yesterday.

Also part of the tour were Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism, Winston Peters, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Rodger Samuel, Pan Trinbago President Keith Diaz, and Urban Development Corporation of TT (Udecott) Chief Executive Officer Kurt Ramlal.

The land for the headquarters handed over by the United National Congress (UNC) in 2001 and construction on the three-storey building began in 2002, but the headquarters has not yet been completed. Moonilal said the visit with Udecott was to see the state of the project, and integrity of the structure, at the site. Tenders will be invited via newspapers for contractors to complete the building. Designs have been drafted. Speaking to reporters Moonilal said, “Over the next two, maximum three months to have this project back on the road. We are hoping for Christmas to be finished.”

He later said, “mid 2013 for the latest.”

The TT Electricity Commission, Water and Sewerage Authority, Ministry of Works will be involved. Moonilal and Peters plan to meet with Public Utilities Minister, Emmanuel George, and Works Minister, Jack Warner, to deal with installation of utilities and construction of an access road. “We are hoping all of that could be done within the next two to three weeks,” Moonilal said. Peters said he wanted to see the project completed within his tenure since it was started when the UNC was in office.

He estimated that approximately $4 million was spent on the project and completion would cost $25 million. Peters said the original budget was $15 million, and the increased cost was due to increased cost of construction materials. He said if the Trinidad Cement Limited strike continued it would impact on cost.

Peters said, “we are going to get cement, one way or the other. The main thing here is things to be ironed out the restart of this whole building, that is what we are working on. With different ministerial oversight taking place to get things going. The Pan fraternity needs this.”

He said funding for completion would come from the Public Sector Investment Programme for the Arts ministry . Udecott has oversight for the project, and Moonilal said it came under the state agency in 2007.