One acre of land in southwestern Tobago will be provided by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) for a compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel station. When completed, the facility will allow the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) to use their new CNG buses on the island.
Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Orville London and Secretary of the Division of Infrastructure and Public Utilities (DIPU) Gary Melville met recently with officials of state-owned National Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (NP) and PTSC to discuss plans for the new station.
They have set up a committee, which will meet today on three prospective sites for the station.
"Their mandate is to have that done by the 18th of August," the Chief Secretary said.
"Based on that report, we will then be in a position to determine how we go about operationalising."
London said several issues restrict the areas they can choose for the site, including the need to lay a gas line from the plant at the Cove Industrial Park.
However, the THA will still pursue its plans to purchase 25 buses because the CNG station will take at least 18 months to be completed once construction starts.
The buses will be used by the THA, the Maxi Taxi Association and the PTSC. Currently, less than ten of the required 30 buses are operational in Tobago.