$1b complex left unguarded with valuable material in easy reach THE Tarouba Sporting Complex, aka the Brian Lara Stadium, which has cost taxpayers between $900million and $1.1billion so far, is not properly secured and open for any enterprising thief to make off with valuable cable, steel and other materials left? read more?
THE Tarouba Sporting Complex, aka the Brian Lara Stadium, which has cost taxpayers between $900million and $1.1billion so far, is not properly secured and open for any enterprising thief to make off with valuable cable, steel and other materials left abandoned on the premises.
Following a call to the Mirror newsroom early last week in which a woman claimed that detainees under the State of Emergency had been transported in 40ft containers in the dead of the night to the Tarouba Sporting Complex, and were being kept in the basement, Mirror decided to investigate.
We found the stadium guarded by only three security officers at the front gate. From the back, one could easily walk straight in ? or wait, until the dead of night, to drive in and load up the lengths of heavy cable which were left in an open, unfinished building designed to be the ticket booth. Doors to the stadium itself had been left open, so anyone could walk in and remove doors, windows, electrical and plumbing fixtures, anything of value.
Half of the seating area is still incomplete and there was no evidence of a cycling velodrome or even a running track and field. In fact, the pitch itself, from all appearances, is too small for a decent fete match. A child could easily hit a six. In the middle of the seemingly undersized cricket pitch, pigeon pea trees grew in abundance.
Steel barriers lay abandoned in the parking lot, the training nets rippled gently in the breeze. Standing at one of the gates, the padlock securing it orange with rust and age, it came home in a real way just how much taxpayers? money was wasted. Above the stands we could see the lights of the National Cricket Centre, less than ten miles away. From a certain angle it seemed like part of the Brian Lara stadium; the facilities are that close to each other.
Former Sports Minister Gary Hunt, in response to questions in Parliament, had stated that the Tarouba Sporting Complex ? not the Brian Lara Stadium, he corrected at the time ? would comprise the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium (with a seating capacity of 15,000), an elite centre of excellence for sports science, sports medicine, bio mechanic lab, testing and conditioning, an aquatic centre, a cycling velodrome, a centre for field house sports (e.g. basketball, volleyball, netball and badminton), a boxing and martial arts centre, a running track and field, a gymnastic centre, a tennis centre, an administrative centre and hotel accommodation.
In June, on a tour of the facility with CEO of UDeCOTT Jearlean John, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said that it may cost as much as $200million more to make the open-air facility usable. Whether the stadium will ever be open is still to be decided, and the expenditure would take decades to recover, he surmised.
Moonilal saw an overgrown cricket field, flooded locker rooms, incomplete ceilings, and several cracked unpainted walls. The Mirror can confirm that nothing has changed since then. The stadium, which was built by contractors Hafeez Karamath Limited (HKL), was to be completed before the hosting of the Cricket World Cup in 2007. On its website HKL lists the Brian Lara Stadium as an ongoing project, along with the Real Spring Housing Development, another UdeCott project. The late Hafeez Karamath was also the executive chairman of Desalcott, which HKL constructed and still owns 60 percent interest.
HKL has also undertaken construction projects for AnsaMcAl, Nicholas Development Ltd, and NIPDEC (National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd).
In its former incarnation, as HKCL (Hafeez Karamath Construction Ltd), the company client list included WASA, NP, UWI, Clico Property Development, Home Construction Limited, ISPATT and the National Housing Authority, Plipdeco and the Ministry of National Security.
Despite the massive overruns in cost (the project was initially priced at just $275million), Minister Moonilal believes the seating area still needs a roof, despite the fact that all of the other stadia built for the Cricket World Cup are uncovered, and even Lord?s cricket ground in London has some areas that are uncovered. ?There is probably no way you can escape being drenched in rain at this site because of the way it was designed and built,? remarked Minister Moonilal on his site visit. ?We will look and see what we can do because it is not feasible to put 17,000 people in a sports arena and have the majority getting wet if it rains. Even in the (Queen?s Park) Oval and (Hasely Crawford) Stadium the people do not get wet that way.?
The seating at these two facilities are, in fact, only partially covered.
Moonilal said since the structure included two floors for media personnel, and another for officials, the venue could attract sporting events on an international level. He said the next step in the project was for UDeCOTT to?compile a report and then seek approval from Cabinet for more funding.
It is still not clear if indeed the stadium is built on shifting clay, as rumoured.?A team of soil scientists is supposed to test the soil to confirm if this is true.
?The big decision for us is do we park it up and leave it as an eyesore in Tarouba or do we try to finish it and have some type of utility value in terms of international sport?? said Moonilal in June. ?And if we do that then we have to take a decision to spend a significant amount of money. And it is a matter really that Cabinet must consider. The Brian Lara (Stadium) is a headache at this time because if you go forward you spend enormous resources. If you park it up you have wasted?enormous resources.?
From what the Mirror could see, it is not suitable as a detention camp either, just in case that is, indeed, a possible use being considered by the State.
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