Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training Professor Prakash Persad says renovation work on the UWI Penal-Debe South Campus is progressing, despite significant deterioration of the facility after it remained idle for nearly a decade under the previous administration.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he assured that efforts are being made to complete the project as quickly as possible, despite what he described as a substantial setback.
“The Debe Campus renovation works are continuing, as anything that has been idle for ten years was abandoned for ten years, so a lot of solid infrastructure needed rejuvenation again, so that it why there is a delay, but it is going ahead as fast as possible, as I said before, and the opening date will be announced at the right time.”
The Minister explained that the original budget for the project had to be revised due to the extent of the deterioration.
“The initial budget was 70 million; that was the initial budget, but we knew that there was going to be more, because, as I said, it was abandoned for ten years, and you know any building abandoned for ten years deteriorates in a big way.”