Faith wants info on Galleons Passage made public

Minority Councillor, Dr Faith BYisrael is calling on Government to make public all information relating to the acquisition of the Galleons Passage.

The long awaited Galleons Passage docked at the port of Port of Spain on Tuesday at 11 pm, 145 days after departing Nansha, China.

At a media conference on Tuesday at James Park in Scarborough, BYisrael, in calling for documents on the vessel's acquisition, referred to a report by independent marine surveyor, Tsunami Marine Limited, which she said revealed approximately 40 defects.

“It is very, very disturbing to see a report made by Tsunami Marine Limited, which did the overall assessment (on June 8-9) ... and at that time, we recognised that there are still probably about 40 issues that still need to be resolved...emergency fire pumps must be installed.

"In addition, it is recommended that a hard bottom rescue boat is needed because what they have apparently is a soft bottom rescue boat and for the kind of traversing that would happen between Trinidad and Tobago, that kind of boat will not suffice. Further, they (Tsunami Marine) suggested that a fast rescue vessel, and not just a tug, be part of the equipment on board available at all times," she said, also noting it was recommeded that fixed firefighting equipment be installed in the cargo area.

“We are not naysayers, but we would like to identify the fact that many of the issues that they are speaking about are safety related issues," she said, also questioning what took place with the vessel from January, when it was bought by Government, to now that it has arrived in TT.

"...we believe that all those issues really should have been resolved. These are issues that if not resolved can really be detrimental to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago or all of the people who travel on that boat when it finally comes into service."

BYisrael said the Tsunami Marine report said that the Galleons Passage was better suited to operating in the Gulf of Paria than on the sea bridge.

“...and it is because it is a river boat and that is why the surveyors said that it would be better suited for that kind of travel instead of the inter-island travel. The surveyor also said that given basically that we already have it, with good maintenance and good follow through, it can function on the inter-island service, but we all know that Trinidad and Tobago does not have a good track record of maintaining anything appropriately, particularly as it relates to the inter-island ferries when we do not have the foreign people doing the maintenance,” she said.

BYisraelalso questioned the readiness of NIDCO to fix the idenfied issues before the vessel was put into service and the cost.

"At the beginning when they (Government) said they were getting this wonderful vessel, the cost factor was one of the things they spoke about very loudly, that it was a good buy. We’re now probably seeing why they got it for cheap money. We would like to know, given the initial costs and all of the spending that has been done between then and now, and all of the spending that would be done to bring all of these things up to code, what really is the final cost of this vessel,” she said.

Government bought Galleons Passage for US$17.4 million. The vessel spent over a month in Cuba for work to be done on the canopies in passenger and vehicle areas, as well as on the toilets and 100 of its 700 chairs.

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"Faith wants info on Galleons Passage made public"

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