By Paras Ramoutar, IANS
Port-of-Spain : Foundation work on a new $1.7 billion steel plant to be set up in Trinidad and Tobago by India’s Essar group has been delayed following a suspected case of arson over the weekend.
Two vehicles worth $320,000 used for construction work at the plant’s site in Claxton Bay, 50 km from here, were destroyed in what police have confirmed as sabotage Saturday.
Police confirmed that arson was the motive as a gasoline tank, two cutlasses and a pair of sneakers were found at the scene.
Arson is suspected as two vehicles worth $320,000 were destroyed Saturday at the Essar Steel plant, Claxton Bay,some 50 km from here.
Around 3 a.m. Saturday, one of the three watchmen on duty saw that the vehicles – a 350 Caterpillar Excavator and a 250 Caterpillar off-road truck – were on fire.
Julien Subnaik, project manager of Namacco Construction Services, alleged that the vehicles were set on fire was by those who are opposed to the plant being built in the area.
“Two weeks ago, an Essar sign was burnt, and there are several signs protesting the construction of the plant,” he said.
Subnaik noted that last month there was a protest demonstration against the project in the area and since then there has been a sense of uneasiness in the community.
Residents want the plant to be relocated so that the peace and tranquility of the area is not disturbed.
Residents who live in the area are mainly Indo-Trinidadians, descendants of indentured labourers who came to work in the sugar plantations in this country a over a hundred years. There are around 520,000 Indo-Trinidadians in a population of a million.
Police said that investigations into Saturday’s incident are continuing.
Essar Steel Caribbean had signed an agreement in December 2005 to set up the two million-tonne iron and steel plant in Trinidad and Tobago. The company is a subsidiary of Essar Global, which in turn, is a closely held company of India’s Ruia family.