For­mer em­ploy­ees of now de­funct state-owned en­er­gy com­pa­ny, Petrotrin, are one step clos­er to see­ing a promise of res­i­den­tial lots be­ing ful­filled, fol­low­ing a sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Glen­roy II site, in Princes Town, yes­ter­day.

Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment, Pene­lope Beck­les, turned the sod for Phase I of the PETROTRIN Res­i­den­tial Lots Pro­gramme, which was launched in 2020 for for­mer em­ploy­ees of PETROTRIN who were ter­mi­nat­ed in No­vem­ber, 2018, as a re­sult of the clo­sure of the re­fin­ery, and the re­struc­tur­ing of the ex­plo­ration and pro­duc­tion ac­tiv­i­ties.

“The Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to work­ing in the best in­ter­ests of all cit­i­zens, and as such is do­ing all it can to cush­ion the ef­fects of the fall­out in­curred from the PETROTRIN clo­sure, ever mind­ful that ac­cess to these res­i­den­tial lots can be a re­al game chang­er in im­prov­ing the so­cio-eco­nom­ic prospects of these ex-em­ploy­ees,” Min­is­ter Beck­les said at the sod-turn­ing event.

She added: “By en­abling our cit­i­zens a path­way to prop­er­ty own­er­ship, we are not just meet­ing a fam­i­ly’s need for safe and se­cure shel­ter and the abil­i­ty to earn a liv­ing through agri­cul­tur­al pur­suits, but we are al­so pro­vid­ing a tan­gi­ble op­por­tu­ni­ty that will change their lives for­ev­er.”

The PETROTRIN Res­i­den­tial Lots Pro­gramme pro­vides ser­vice­able lots of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 5,000 square feet for a lease pe­ri­od of 199 years, with all of the re­quired in­fra­struc­ture, lot de­lin­eat­ing, and statu­to­ry ap­provals free of charge to for­mer, el­i­gi­ble ex-PETROTRIN em­ploy­ees.  The Pro­gramme is util­is­ing the Min­istry’s Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing mod­el.

The Land Set­tle­ment Agency, un­der the re­mit of the Min­istry, will be re­spon­si­ble for de­vel­op­ing the lots through the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (PSIP) and the In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Fund (IDF), while the Com­mis­sion­er of State Lands will be re­spon­si­ble for is­su­ing the lease ti­tles for the land.

In keep­ing with the Min­istry’s Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing mod­el, pre-ap­proved house plans, tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance and over­sight for the con­struc­tion of the hous­es would be pro­vid­ed by the Land Set­tle­ment Agency, while sub­si­dized loans can be ac­cessed through the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mort­gage Fi­nance Com­pa­ny (TTMF) for el­i­gi­ble ap­pli­cants re­quir­ing mort­gage fa­cil­i­ties for home con­struc­tion.

Ap­pli­ca­tions which have been re­ceived from el­i­gi­ble, for­mer em­ploy­ees for the lots, have been en­tered in­to the Min­istry’s data­base, and will be se­lect­ed when each of the nine sites cur­rent­ly ear­marked for the Pro­gramme is ready for dis­tri­b­u­tion, util­is­ing the Min­istry’s ran­dom se­lec­tion draw process.

Al­so, in at­ten­dance at yes­ter­day’s sod turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny were: Adri­an Leonce MP, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment; Claire David­son-Williams, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Hous­ing Min­istry; Nir­mala Ram­lo­gan, Deputy PS at the Hous­ing Min­istry; Wayne In­nis, Chair­man of the LSA; and Haz­ar Ho­sein, CEO of the LSA.