00:00 Our vessels have to maintain its class certification and has to undergo its periodic dry docking.
00:07 So what we did is that we brought in a heavy lift vessel, which will be here for probably
00:12 about a month.
00:15 And that will take on board all our vessels, obviously one at a time, and have all of them
00:24 dry docked and certified and so on.
00:28 The rental of the White Marlin for a month would cost U.S. $2.5 million, a significant
00:35 saving for the country, according to Rohan Sinanan.
00:39 The Minister of Works and Transport tells TV6 that the vessel arrived on Sunday afternoon
00:45 shortly before 2 p.m. and would be in operation for about a month, dry docking all three fast
00:52 ferries one at a time.
00:55 So we intend to utilize the vessel for about a month and have the APT James, the Boko Reef,
01:03 and the other fast ferry certified and dry docked and have all three vessels back on
01:14 the sea bridge until the next time it has to go into dry dock.
01:19 The heavy load carrier is 216 meters in length, but how does the vessel work?
01:26 It's really a heavy lift vessel.
01:29 So the vessels will obviously go onto the dry dock, be lifted out of the water, and
01:36 all the certifications and so will be done.
01:39 And according to Minister Sinanan, with the dry docking in Trinidad, there would be a
01:44 significant savings cost factor to this country and less inconvenience on the sea bridge.
01:51 If we had to send these vessels out of Trinidad, it would probably take an additional six to
01:57 eight weeks in just traveling alone.
02:01 Because the dry dock is here, it will just come off, go onto the dry dock, do whatever
02:06 has to be done and then be back in service the next day.
02:10 We are quite comfortable in terms of capacity and so I think it's the first time we have
02:14 all these vessels operating backward and forward and there's no issue in terms of space, even
02:20 at the peak period.
02:22 So, you know, this is really where we wanted to get to and this is where we are now.
02:27 The schedule for the sea bridge with respect to the inter-islander ferries would be out
02:32 soon and according to Minister Sinanan, NITCO has gone out for tender for a new cargo vessel.
02:39 Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
02:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]
