Dix­ie-Ann Dick­son

Chair­man of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) Ken­ny de Sil­va con­firmed yes­ter­day that con­struc­tion of the Grand and North Stands at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah was on sched­ule. He said the fa­cil­i­ties will have an in­creased ca­pac­i­ty with seat­ing for 25,000 pa­trons. "The con­struc­tion is on sched­ule and it should be com­plet­ed by Feb­ru­ary 10-five and a half weeks af­ter con­struc­tion be­gan," de Sil­va told the T&T Guardian af­ter mon­i­tor­ing work at the site yes­ter­day morn­ing.

De Sil­va said quick and ef­fi­cient ser­vice was be­ing done at the site with be­tween 200 to 300 labour­ers on the job every day. He said Car­ni­val pa­trons can look for­ward to an en­hanced fa­cil­i­ty, with the Grand Stand now able to ac­com­mo­date an ad­di­tion­al 2500 pa­trons-up to 7,500 from the pre­vi­ous seat­ing ca­pac­i­ty of 5,000 pa­trons. While North Stand seat­ing re­mains at 8,000, de Sil­va said the stand­ing area has been ex­pand­ed from the pre­vi­ous ca­pac­i­ty of 5,000 to ac­com­mo­date 10,000 pa­trons. De Sil­va al­so as­sured that prop­er land­scap­ing would be on­go­ing on the sur­round­ings of the Sa­van­nah to en­sure it re­verts to its pris­tine state.