Giant TV for Govt CampusJuhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Wednesday, March 25th 2009
A gigantic multi-million-dollar television screen is being purchased by the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) to be installed at the $1 billion Government Campus, now under construction in downtown Port of Spain.
It will be the largest television screen in the country, over-shadowing the screen now on top the KFC outlet on Independence Square, Port of Spain, that illuminates the capital city at night.
It will be suspended some six storeys high on the eastern side of the new Board of Inland Revenue tower.
This was revealed by construction consultant Arun Buch during a tour of the project by members of the Commission of Enquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector.
Buch told the touring party, including commission chairman Prof John Uff, that the screen would cost
$40 million but in a telephone interview about two hours later, UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart said the monitor would not even cost half that amount.
"We wouldn't approve the price at
$20 million," Hart said.
He added the television screen is part of a plan to have the Government Campus be a place for people to go at lunch time or at other times including the weekends and view uplifting broadcasts.
"Whether it is the West Indies (cricket team) playing cricket or Trinidad playing football whatever the situation whether it is Carnival...What you are trying to do is to keep that human interface. People moving through, people liming, we want to make these buildings more than just physical infrastructure," Hart said.
He added that the screen will be used initially to display information and entertainment programmes.
Hart said, however, the screen will be operating "on a commercial basis" as it will also broadcasts advertisements and a"will hopefully pay for itself."
"You are going to have around 4,000 people working at the Government Campus. You are going to have people working in the (nearby) Ministry of Education Building. You are going to have people working on the Waterfront (Complex)," Hart said.
During the tour, Buch had pointed to a large covered space that stood about six storeys high on the eastern side of the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) Tower and said, "A
$40 million TV screen is going to go there."
Hart said UDeCOTT was negotiating with several local firms to identify one that will bring the screen into the country, install it and maintain it at the "best price"
