Vin­ode Mam­chan

Good news has come the way of ath­letes and fans in this coun­try as the three mega projects in­volv­ing the con­struc­tion of an Aquat­ic Cen­tre, Cy­cling Cen­tre and Ten­nis Cen­tre cur­rent­ly un­der­way in Cou­va and Tacarigua, are pro­gress­ing well ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials of the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T (Sportt).Of­fi­cials of Sportt, as well as from the min­istry of fi­nance re­cent­ly toured the fa­cil­i­ties and gave it the thumbs up. The tour­ing par­ty in­clud­ed se­nior of­fi­cials of the Min­istries of Sport, Plan­ning & Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment and Fi­nance & the Econ­o­my who got a first-hand look at how the mul­ti­mil­lion dol­lar in­vest­ments were be­ing man­aged.Of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Fi­nance asked ques­tions and were able to un­der­stand and trans­late the fig­ures and re­ports in­to a re­lat­able pic­ture of work be­ing un­der­tak­en.

Ac­cord­ing to Sportt con­sul­tant for the na­tion­als Wil­fred Fuller­ton: "The site vis­it was or­gan­ised by us and de­lib­er­ate­ly so. We are keen to en­gage our stake­hold­ers in the Min­istries and pro­vide as much in­for­ma­tion as we can about how these ma­jor projects are pro­gress­ing. Al­low­ing them to see the foun­da­tion for the mag­nif­i­cent struc­tures helps them to con­cre­tise how it will im­pact on the cit­i­zens."Sched­uled for com­ple­tion by the end of 2014, the ten­nis cen­tre in Tacarigua is re­port­ed to be ahead of time and with­in bud­get. The fa­cil­i­ty will fea­ture in­door and out­door courts as well as of­fice space and oth­er ameni­ties for prac­tice and tour­na­ments. The cy­cling and aquat­ic cen­tres in Cou­va, which were slight­ly de­layed ow­ing to change of site and lev­el­ling is­sues, is now pro­ceed­ing apace and is ex­pect­ed to be com­plete by the end of 2015. These two fa­cil­i­ties will be side by side, cre­at­ing a hub of sport and recre­ation­al ac­tiv­i­ty.

Fur­ther to its na­tion­wide com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tive, through which in­di­vid­u­als and groups ben­e­fit from en­hanced recre­ation spaces, the Sportt will open two grounds in the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Cor­po­ra­tion over the next two weeks. Both grounds have been up­grad­ed to in­clude new foot­ball/crick­et out­fields, 150-seater pavil­ions, crick­et prac­tice nets, jog­ging tracks and mul­ti­pur­pose hard courts. Mean­while, Anil Roberts, Min­is­ter of Sport will be at the Phoenix Park Recre­ation Ground, Cou­va, to­day from 3 pm to han­dover the up­grad­ed fa­cil­i­ty to the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.The ground has been up­grad­ed by the Sportt as part of its na­tion­wide ini­tia­tive to im­prove com­mu­ni­ty lev­el recre­ation fa­cil­i­ties.Phoenix Park Recre­ation Ground now in­cludes of a new foot­ball/crick­et out­field, 150-seat pavil­ion with change rooms, crick­et prac­tice nets, walk­ing/jog­ging track and mul­ti­pur­pose hard court.Min­is­ter Roberts will tour the com­plet­ed works, per­form a sym­bol­ic hand­ing over to the Cor­po­ra­tion, then par­tic­i­pate in a foot­ball match be­tween a Sports Com­pa­ny XI and a lo­cal team.Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cou­va South, the Ho­n­ourable Rudranath In­dars­ingh, is al­so ex­pect­ed to at­tend.