Government’s hopes to keep the Super Fast Galicia on sea bridge for a further three months have been dashed, but Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan says “we have options” as he looks to put measures in place by April 19 to ensure Tobago is not adversely affected when the Galicia leaves.
Sinanan told the T&T Guardian that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has been keeping in contact on efforts to resolve the problem.
Rowley is in New York on vacation following his recent trip to Houston for talks with energy sector officials and is due to return home today.
Sinanan said while Dr Rowley “wants us to find a solution, he also wants us to ensure that going forward we are not placed in this situation again.” It was for this reason Sinanan said Cabinet had agreed “that we will buy a vessel and build a vessel suitable to the needs of Trinidad and Tobago.”
The imminent departure of the Galicia on April 18 has prompted major concerns among stakeholders in Tobago. Sinanan said he listened to their concerns when they met this week. The stakeholders told the minister he should go back to the local agents and try to re-negotiate to keep the Galicia or to get an alternative vessel. They gave him until Monday to come back with a solution.
Late Thursday Sinanan did just that. He met with the local agent for the Galicia, John Powell, the managing director of Inter-Continental. Sinanan said “we made a suggestion to keep the Galicia for another three months, but they indicated that is not possible.” He said “they trying to get a boat by May, but that is too late, we want to have things in place by April 19th when the Galicia is no longer available.”
The Galicia’s owner, Transmed, has already booked the vessel to take up service in North Africa from June 1 and the vessel needs to get back to Gibraltar before it is reassigned.
Sinanan said after the meeting he felt “comforted we have options.”
Powell told the T&T Guardian the meeting with the minister and his team “was cordial and very solution-oriented and he promised the minister to “get back to him by Monday morning, with a few recommendations on what is available.”
Sinanan said he visited the port yesterday to look at the “two Coast Guard vessels. Obviously the options are not like the Super Fast, which is an excellent boat, but we have options.”
Sinanan said he had “no problem with the Galicia”, but the negatives outweighed the positives.
“The vessel is too large. When I visited the port this morning (Friday) the Galicia was parked out in the waters with a big barge behind it.”
The barge is used to load the vessel because it cannot be berthed at the docks, he said.
Sinanan said “if there is a cruise ship in port the Galicia cannot be in the port and when there is a cruise ship in Tobago it cannot dock. It is high maintenance, the cost of the fuel is twice the price of the vessel which it replaced.”
Contacted yesterday, chairman of the Inter Island ferry Commission in Tobago, Diane Hadad, said solutions put to the Tobago Chamber, including the tug and barge, Coast Guard vessels, and the TCL barge “just sounded like a whole lot of mess.”
She said stakeholders were not interested in a barge because “we did that before, we learnt from our mistakes and will not be making them again.”
Hadad said the “barge causes salt water exposure and puts goods through unnecessary damage, so that goods are not good for consumption. We don’t want to go back and do the same thing. There is no way tugs and barges will be accepted.”
Tobago Chamber president Demi John Cruikshank said the minister has until the close of business “four o’clock on Monday to get back to us, so we waiting on him.”
