Interview with Senator the Honorable Rohan Sinanan, Minister, Ministry of Works and Transport, Trinidad and Tobago

18 Mar Interview with Senator the Honorable Rohan Sinanan, Minister, Ministry of Works and Transport, Trinidad and Tobago

Could you introduce the ministry for our readers, explain your remit as minister and what you do for the people of Trinidad and Tobago?

We are the Ministry of Works and Transport and that entails the entire infrastructure network in the country: road infrastructure, the ports of entry, the airports, public transportation, the inter-island transportation between Trinidad and Tobago, the licensing office and we also have under our belts Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago, a wholly owned state enterprise which manages the Pitch Lake which is a natural bitumen lake in southern Trinidad and the National Quarries Company. We also have the Caribbean Dockyard & Engineering Services Ltd, more commonly known as Caridoc, which is for the repair of vessels in Trinidad and we have National Helicopter Services Ltd.

We have an aspect of construction permitting too for public buildings. In all we have 14 State Enterprises and internally we have 12 technical divisions. We also have some social programmes like Unemployment Relief Programme – we try to use unemployed persons for small construction, roadside repairs etc.

What recent achievements would you like to highlight for our readers in terms of the road network and greater international connectivity?

Over the last eight years in terms of major projects, we were charged with the responsibility of improving the road network in three aspects: one is build-out of the national highways; upgrading all the secondary roads and a program for new roads and new avenues to alleviate overall traffic. There is also the repairs of the bridges and construction of new ones. A lot of our bridges are 60 or 70 years old and are at overcapacity for modern times now based on usage and climate changes, so we have a major program – every year we try to address at least 10 or 12 bridges. We also have a major landslip program.

In the last eight years, one of our projects has been the continuation of the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway started in 2012 but had stopped and we were able to complete it. Another major highway was the highway from Cumuto to Sangre Grande which is 75% completed. There is also an upgrade of the road to Toco to international standard. Those are the major highways. All are completed or at a far advanced stage. We also have the east west corridor traffic alleviation program which is removing all the traffic lights from Diego Martin up to Arima across the width of the country. We have so far upgraded two interchanges, the Curepe interchange and the Diego Martin interchange and removed the lights that existed prior. The next step is Macoya, which is a huge junction. All the traffic lights will be replaced with overpasses to alleviate traffic flow.

Outside of that, we are upgrading the port in Moruga and we are working on getting the statutory requirements for Toco port right now so that work will soon start. This will remove some of the traffic from Port of Spain and take it to Toco which is one third of the distance to Tobago. We are planning for a passenger seabridge from Toco but we can still have the commercial part in Port of Spain. It will cut the passenger time dramatically between the islands.

We have long term plans including the National Transportation Policy – the last transportation policy we had in Trinidad was from 1967 – so we developed a policy now and that policy will be translated into a plan geared towards the future. We also have the National Drainage Plan for which we will work with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and that will tell us the projects we have to do and where we have to do it.

Our problem in Trinidad is that historically, the way the country was planned did not leave much room for infrastructure growth or maintenance. A lot of development took place without proper infrastructure so there isn’t much we could do with existing facilities. We need to upgrade everything.  We have done a couple of thousand projects since 2022 and that continues.

Frontier has begun their service to Puerto Rico and United are flying from Newark during Christmas and Carnival. What are the future air connectivity programs for Trinidad – especially as you were in the Middle East this year?

These agreements are partly why we had the CAPA conference to help us go further. We are signing bilateral agreements, we have a major aeropark being constructed which we feel will push the aviation sector in Trinidad.

The first step is signing Air Services Agreements in place but these can take years. The committee that does the negotiations has had several negotiations in the past years – some of these conversations have taken place for 15-20 years because these things take time through different governments and policy changes in countries. The one we signed with the UAE in September 2024 was going for over 15 years. We have one with Ghana going on for a similar time. We want to accommodate and facilitate airlines from the Middle East, we’re now signing with Africa. We have several in Central America. We’re now in a position where we can have airlines from around the world having agreements here with us. The next stage of that is to get the airline to fly here but that is a commercial decision and that negotiation is taking place. I understand quite a few airlines have shown interest in taking up the opportunity in Trinidad. So the aviation sector is really poised to take off.

The new facilities at the airport and the new airport in Tobago are part of this attraction. Nobody flies to your country unless it is viable for them, but we have laid the groundwork and the conversations have started. Codesharing is also something we are looking at with Caribbean Airlines and conversations are taking place at that level, so even if the airline doesn’t come here directly, we can link with them in the US or somewhere that does fly here and make it easier and quicker for passengers.

Routes World 2024 is taking place in Bahrain and some of our senior personnel at the airport are going. At the CAPA Conference in August some of these airlines were represented and the whole idea is to continue discussions. LATAM was there, Qatar Airways, the Saudi air connectivity program. The appetite for travel has been restored after Covid and there is a lot of travel between Trinidad and Tobago and South America and it augurs well for another airline to take the initiative and connect us better. Equally we want to follow up on the excellent work that was done with the air services agreement, we are going to keep pursuing these conversations in the Middle East.

The new airport in Tobago has cost $130 million and is almost completed, scheduled for the first quarter next year. Aside from British Airways and Condor’s seasonal service, what new airlines can Tobago expect?

One of the challenges with the current airport is that it really wasn’t attractive for some of the bigger airlines and some of these airlines said they did not want to fly into the airport. So with this new modern airport, that in itself will attract airlines but a lot more will be done. An airport in and of itself does not attract people coming for tourism and there are a lot of things happening on the island and the Ministry of Tourism and the Tobago House of Assembly makes sure there is a product on the island that people will come for. We as Works and Transport make sure the infrastructure is there and that is where we are. The central government does its part and the THA does its part to make sure the island is well served for the infrastructure.

Everything is demand and supply. Nobody runs an airline to lose money. Once there is a volume of movement, it will attract more airlines and more people and that drives down cost in itself. Caribbean Airlines is looking to expand its fleet and increase the amount of flights to other islands and once you have more flights that drives the price down for people to travel. More flights means more people which means reduced prices to some extent.

There will also be a marina in Tobago. Tobago has never had a proper marina where boats can go and refuel which makes it an attraction combined with the location because it is safer from hurricanes than the other islands of the Caribbean. Yachts coming in generate income for the island too.

It was reported in June 2024 that you were looking for Expressions of Interest for revamping and expanding the Port of Port of Spain. What sort of business are you looking for?

We went out for expressions of interest for the port and we got 10 interested parties. The port is now doing that evaluation and they should confirm results by the end of October and coming out of that hopefully we will tender for requests for proposals.

We are looking at a landlord model where the port authority will act as regular but a private company will manage operations of the international cargo handling facilities. It was an international tender that went out including to embassies and trade chambers so more than likely the partners that show interest will be international. The port market is different because you need to have that link to shipping lines, so we are looking for a partner who can move the port to where we want it to be. We’re trying to create greater connections in maritime too with a maritime policy.

Trinidad is car dependent and there aren’t many alternatives for public transport which creates a lot of traffic. As part of the road upgrade programme, is there a public transport plan to get people out of cars?

At this point in time it is difficult. About 15 years ago we looked into a rapid rail system in Trinidad which was shelved because of the economic situation. It still could be an option but the timing is key. That is why what we are concentrating on now is the build-out of the highway network, upgrading the existing networks and looking at traffic alleviation projects which are smaller projects aimed at reducing the traffic in certain areas through bypass roads, widening of junctions, interchanges and so forth. But we also have a plan to use the Public Transport Service Corporation – we want to modernize it and as we speak we are evaluating a tender to buy 300 new buses in phases, the first phase of 100 buses. We’re hoping to make the fleet electric too. By next year, we should have some of this fleet rolled out. We want to use more technology too with tracking and so forth.

There is good service now but it has deteriorated because of a lack of buses. There were 240 routes at one time but that has been cut down to about 90 now. They are about 50-60% efficient in their timing so we need to get them a lot more efficient, get the fleet back to where it is supposed to be and to introduce modern technology.

With an election next year and the Ministry coming to the end of its current five year plan, is there a new plan in the making?

There are two kinds of plans in that respect, one is the politicians’ five year plan which is in the manifesto, and the other is the technocrats’ five year plan. We will look at the last manifesto to check what we have achieved in the last five years, while the individual departments within this ministry will also have their plans looking forward. We will have a new plan for 2025-30.

Now that the budget has been read we can understand the direction we need to go in and the process starts again. By Q1 next year our new strategic focus will be out. It serves as a platform that we have identified focusing on highways and upgrades, public transport, aviation and maritime sectors. It will also have all the public service niceties in it too. It will also include environmental measures and the health and wellbeing of the employees of the ministry. Health and happy employees make better employees.

Any final message to cover to the readers in Miami?

At the end of the day, many people think that the Caribbean is one island and Trinidad is the capital because Trinidad has always been ahead in revenues and outward migration. Despite challenges we have been through from 2008 to now through revenue declines, we are continuing to work hard. Trinidad will continue to develop and based on the work that has happened in the energy sector, I think Trinidad is poised for much more development going forward. Trinidad continues to dominate its path in the Caribbean in terms of progress and development.