Rhon­dor Dowlat-Ros­tant

A date is yet to be set for the com­mis­sion­ing of the two Cape-class Coast Guard ves­sels bought by the gov­ern­ment, each cost­ing US$38.6 mil­lion, which ar­rived in Trinidad and To­ba­go from Perth, Aus­tralia ear­li­er this month.

On Ju­ly 6, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley post­ed a short video clip which showed the boats, the TTS Scar­bor­ough and the TTS Port-of-Spain, be­ing trans­port­ed on a heavy lift ship – the BBC Rush­more.

The boats, which were built by Austal, left the Port of Hen­der­son, West­ern Aus­tralia on June 1.

Guardian Me­dia was told by a Coast Guard source, Austal of­fi­cials are cur­rent­ly en­gaged in in­tense train­ing of a crew in prepa­ra­tion for the boats to be put in­to ser­vice, join­ing the rest of the fleet pa­trolling the coun­try’s ma­rine bor­ders.

"Train­ing is go­ing on the new ves­sels right now in terms of get­ting the crew up to speed but the ten­ti­tive date is Au­gust 27 which is the TTCG's birth­day so they are plan­ning to have it com­mis­sioned on its birth­day cel­e­bra­tions but the date is still yet to be con­firmed," the Coast Guard of­fi­cial said.

Ques­tions sent to the TTCGs pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Khadi­ja Lamy via her cell­phone and email up to presstime went un­ac­knowl­edged and unan­swered.