TriniRealty.com

Construction has been halted on the controversial container apartments in St Augustine. Officials of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) visited the site on Bedessie Street earlier this week after the article first appeared in the Sunday Guardian. They served the couple a notice to halt construction.

The owners, Rhea Lalla and her husband, Paul Sowden, did not have any form of approval to erect a structure, chairman of the TPRC, Patricia Mejias, told the T&T Guardian yesterday. Despite the couple's assurance on Monday that container homes were safe, durable and eco-friendly, there were no consultation or approvals for construction of 45 8x20 containers into fully-furnished, air-conditioned apartments and an administrative office.

University of the West Indies students at the St Augustine campus will have 450 rooms available to them in September says Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim. The minister said he would not tolerate any UWI student being housed in containers and has since launched an investigation into reports that a landlord in St Augustine was preparing used freight containers as rental apartments for UWI students. Karim was speaking to the T&T Guardian at Rienzi Complex, Couva, yesterday.

The Sunday Guardian carried a report that a chronic shortage of accommodation for students in and around the St Augustine campus has led to one landlord converting freight containers into apartments to house students. The construction of the container “homes” was raised at a public consultation for landlords at UWI on June 26, attended by Karim and Prakash Ramadhar, the St Augustine MP and Legal Affairs Minister and officials from the UWI.

The chronic shortage for student accommodation in and around the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine campus has led to one landlord converting freight containers into apartments to house students. This is now the subject of an investigation by UWI's principal Prof Clement Sankat. The construction of the containers was raised at a public consultation for landlords at UWI on June 26, which was attended by Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Fazal Karim, St Augustine MP and Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar, director of UWI's Student Advisory Services (SAS) Deirdre Charles, president of UWI's Student Guild Hillan Morean and Sankat. Karim and Ramadhar immediately acted on the information by visiting the site of the 21 one-bedroom apartments at Bidassie Street following the consultation. However, they were greeted by a locked galvanised gate at the back entrance of the property. From the roadway, the ministers saw the containers stacked on three levels.