IslandMix

450m Carnival Centre comes to a halt
-Juhel Browne
Wednesday, April 11th 2007


Construction of the proposed $450 million National Carnival and Entertainment Centre has come to a halt because the design is being reviewed.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning made the announcement yesterday almost a month and a half after the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) said the Request for Proposals for the project were to have been issued "in the coming weeks".

"The Carnival Centre is on hold because of the events of Carnival this year and the need to rethink the design in the face of all of that," Manning said during the sod-turning ceremony for the $800 million 26-storey Broadgate Place Plaza shopping complex in downtown Port of Spain.

At the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, on February 22, Culture Minister Joan Yuille-Williams said construction of the National Carnival and Entertainment Centre would not be completed in time for Carnival 2008.

She said it would be built by 2009, which means masqueraders could find themselves parading on the road in front of the Queen's Park Savannah next year, as they did for Carnival this year.

Yuille-Williams had said she planned to have postmortem consultations with the nation's mas and steelband leaders in late February that could see possible changes in the design for the new cultural facility.

While work is now on hold for the National Carnival and Entertainment Centre, work has already begun on the Academy of the Performing Arts , another cultural facility approved by the Manning administration.

no big surprise there. Carinval won't see me playing mas until a stage is built. And from the looks of things it's going totake a while

well i did say tnt would not see me till 2009 looks like i was right to say that i want the stage back before i spending my money again

Ray Rayyyyyyyyyyy!
First was Asbestos, now designs.
Mas will be on the road for atleast another 5 years....

Did anyone really believe that there would be a stage for '08? Most ppl have been predicting 2010 from the start. This year was a whole set of anxiety, hope, and disappointment leading up to carnival and I think most of us learned our lesson and not even studying a stage anytime soon. But to say I not playing till they build one...uhhh...nah, thats taking it to far

+1 I luv meh stage. But tuh go TnT for carnival and not play ah mas...WOW, is best yuh ask me to stop breathing.

BD - Gym update fuh meh please

I knew that was coming and that 2009 date will turn into 2012, cause it bound to have some comess and bacchannal like the airport project to prolong it.

Bacchanal is one of our national past times

Yuh know, some people have a PHd with distinction in dat.

THAT THING MIGHT TURN OUT JUST LIKE PIARCO AIRPORT
IN TRUE TRICKYDADIAN FASHION.

Well, what had happened was...and then I wasn't feeling too good and..well you know the rest

I starting fresh (again) on monday tho

Neo I just tief that jumbie in your sig...sue me


Back to topic...just think what carnival is gonna be like the year (whenever it is) that our new stage is completed!!! :

I'm protesting. It's the American side of me!!

I bet you if more people did it, you'd see push back by the government to get thing done when they SAY they're going to get it done instead of taking the slack road that we people are known for when it comes to work getting done.

Have you all seen the amount of work that's taking place in downtown POS??? they're doing it at such a fast pace, it's amazing? Why can't that same effort and planning go to what's suppose to happen with the center?

Exactly....people was getting their hopes up high for 2008. It might quicker be 2018.

I plan on sticking like ah peppa in yuh tail. If you doh want tuh hear my mout, make sure and find yuh self in dat gym come Monday