Last Updated on December 18, 2019, 9:51 AM AST by Anthony Morris
Another Oasis-class cruise ship has refused to dock at St Kitts’ new multi-million dollar cruise pier which was seized by the Team Unity Government on Monday.
Tuesday, the 6,780 passenger “Symphony of the Seas” arrived in the Basseterre roadstead and docked at the older pier. The “Symphony of the Seas” is the second Oasis-class ship to refuse to dock at the new cruise pier in as many days.
On Monday the 4,905 -passenger Oasis-Class “Anthem of the Seas,” did not dock at the new cruise pier. Two smaller ships – the 2,450 passenger “Celebrity Summit” and the 450-passenger “Seabourn Oddessey” became the first cruise vessels to dock at the new pier since it was completed.
Tuesday, the “Symphony of the Seas” and the “Azura” docked at the older pier while the “Crystal Serenity” and a tug docked at the “seized” second pier.
See more about cruise pier click here
On Monday night, former prime minister Douglas in a statement charged that the government “captured the new cruise ship pier to facilitate a mock opening ceremony because of serious criticism that ‘the Second Cruise Ship Pier Spoil’ during the Parliamentary Debate of the 2020 Budget last week Friday.”
Dr Douglas said there are serious contention over “outstanding invoices for works already done which run into several million dollars, and disagreements over work yet to be undertaken, but which have been costed but for which the St Kitts and Nevis Government and SCASPA have been unresponsive to the many queries from the contractors.
“Although the pier has been appropriately designed and built to specifications, the pier has not been commissioned for public use and has not been handed over to SCASPA or the St Kitts and Nevis Government because of the unsettled disputes,” said Dr Douglas, who further disclosed that a series of questions and requests for meetings to Minister Ian “Patches” Liburd and the Government, on behalf of the contractors and the Government of Canada have been intentionally ignored over several months.
“This chaos is due to the intransigence of the Minister responsible for SCASPA and Prime Minister Harris,” said Dr Douglas, the former prime minister, who said that the most grotesque and reckless incident on Monday morning in which the St Kitts and Nevis Government “captured the pier and forced into the harbour two vessels bypassing the permission of the contractors is beyond logistics and logics.”
The Federal government is on record as stating that the second cruise pier was built to accommodate “two Oasis-class cruise ships at the same time.”
“Although the pier has been appropriately designed and built to specifications, the pier has not been commissioned for public use and has not been handed over to SCASPA or the St Kitts and Nevis Government because of the unsettled disputes,” said Dr Douglas, who further disclosed that a series of questions and requests for meetings to Minister Ian “Patches” Liburd and the Government, on behalf of the contractors and the Government of Canada have been intentionally ignored over several months.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
