The Central Block of the Port of Spain General Hospital is expected to be completed and commissioned by early 2025.
So said Udecott chairman Noel Garcia.
Garcia’s comment follows statements made by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal during the UNC’s Monday Night Report at Hillview College.
Moonilal said the original date of completion was supposed to be March 1, with 13 levels completed. He said from his observations, only six levels have been completed.
However, Garcia, in a Newsday interview, has stated otherwise.
Garcia noted that the project remains within budget and that they are still projecting that the Central Block will be finished in the third quarter of 2024.
He said: “We should begin commissioning and installation of equipment in October 2024, and commission the hospital, i.e, test and commission the equipment and have it up and running in early 2025.
“We are now up to level 12 and we expect to reach level 13 by the end of this month. Works on outfitting and on the curtain wall are to begin in May and hopefully by June or July of this year those works would be completed.”
Garcia said due to the covid lockdown, the original completion dates went through the window.
“We had lockdowns, supply chain issues, material shortages, so I really cannot hold to the original date. I don’t think anywhere in the world they held to the original date because covid created severe disruptions.
“We had at least two lockdowns in Trinidad, we had the issue of shipping coming out of China where a container moved from US$4,000 to US$19,000, you had shortages of steel and other materials. So to go back and talk about the original completion date is a nonsense. We did not create covid19, it was an event that none of us anticipated,” Garcia said.
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