Galleons to sail non stop to TT

THE MV Galleons Passage will be making no stops as it sails towards TT. National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco) chairman Herbert George said this to reporters after a sod-turning ceremony for the construction of a water taxi walkover between the Port of Spain International Waterfront Centre and the Brian Lara Promenade on Wednesday. George said the vessel left Cuba at 5.35 pm on Tuesday. It is travelling at a speed of 12 knots.

Fair weather permitting, George said the vessel should arrive in TT on Monday. Nidco president Esther Farmer told Newsday on Tuesday about the vessel’s departure from Cuba. A subsequent statement from Nidco confirmed its departure from the Damex Shipyard in Santiago de Cuba. Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said he hoped the media could tour the vessel when it arrives, once Nidco gives the green light. He said this would help the public to see that it is “a brand new vessel.” Once the Galleons Passage arrives, Sinanan said there are some logistics to work out with the ministry’s maritime division, before it can operate on the seabridge.

This will not be a repeat of situations in the past where vessels arrive in TT and are “parked up for five months before they started to work.”