Le Hunte: 3,000 jobs in construction of Sandals

Construction of a Sandals resort at Buccoo will take place over a three- year period and provide employment for over 3,000 people, and for 1,700 persons during operations.

So said Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte said on Monday. speaking at the commissioning of a 20-megawatts expansion facility at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity’s (T&TEC) Cove Power Station at Canoe Bay.

Le Hunte said the Ministry was fully aware of the infrastructural requirements for the Sandals resort to be deemed viable, and that the Southwest waste water treatment system was currently being rehabilitated to this end.

“That project (waste water system) when completed will connect an estimated 215 properties in the areas of Scarborough, Bacolet, Mt Marie and Lambeau,” he said.

In terms of providing water for Tobago, he said seven production wells would be drilled in Signal Hill, Calder Hall, Carnbee and Les Coteaux – and these are expected to produced four million gallons of potable water per day of potable water and improve the water supply to 40,000 persons in the surrounding communities.

He said the water supply infrastructure at the Charlotteville water treatment plant would also be upgraded to meet the needs of some 1,700 beneficiaries.

Le Hunte also boasted of other potential benefits from a Sandals resort in Tobago.

“The project has the potential to positively transform Tobago’s tourism sector. Besides being one of the highest rated resort companies because of the level of service that is provided by their hotels, Sandals also invests heavily and extensively in training their human resource.

“It has been said that once you have worked at Sandals, you can work anywhere in the tourism sector. So what Sandals will do through its operations in Tobago is raise the bar for the local tourism sector in terms of service standards and also in terms of human resource development,” he said.

Le Hunte said a demand for produce would be generated by the hotel’s operations, and there would be spin-off effects for the agricultural sector and other related service industries.

He also plugged other projects - the establishment of a national marina-ferry terminal, securing an internationally recognised operator for the Magdalena Grand and Golf Resort, acquisition of two brand new state of the art ferries for the sea bridge, construction of a new terminal at the ANR Robinson International Airport.

Le Hunte also noted that TTPost has launched the Tobago phase of its national rollout of the new postal code and S42 system, which he said would result in a more efficient and reliable mail delivery service to customers and will also facilitate the development of e-commerce.

“TSTT is also improving its service to its customers in Tobago through the implementation of its zero-copper initiative. That project aims to replace all of the copper in the network with fibre optics. Once installed, the use of fibre optics will result in faster internet speeds and greater capacity which in turn will positively impact both residential and business customers,” he said.