Latest News

Upgrade of the Airfield Lighting Control and Monitoring System at the Piarco and ANR Robinson International Airports and the upgrade of the Approach Lighting System at the Piarco International Airport 10/10/2010

The management of the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago wishes to inform the local media and the public about the tender process for the award of a contract for the upgrade of the Airfield Lighting Control and Monitoring System at the Piarco and ANR Robinson International Airports and the upgrade of the Apporach Lighting System at the Piarco International Airport.

The decision to issue a tender for these projects was approved by the former Board of the Airports Authority, at a Board meeting on July 31st 2009 where Board Members approved the issue of a tender to invite bids for the project, based on a critical need to improve the runway infrastructure for both Airports, to assure safe landing of aircrafts.

The work consists of replacing the field electrical cabinets and the installation of a new airfield lighting control system at both Piarco and ANR Robinson International Airports.  At present, the system at the Airports is outdated and is in urgent need of upgrade.  Approach lights are very critical to guiding pilots at night or in inclement weather. This work is necessary to ensure that the facilities at both Airports remain at an international standard.

At the same meeting the Board approved the technical evaluation committee, the
evaluation criteria and outlined the guidelines for receipt of tender bids. The tender was advertised in the daily newspapers during the period October 2nd to 8th 2009. Mandatory pre-bidding meetings were held with companies and bidders made presentations. Bids were closed on March 24 2010 and the tender box was publicly opened on the same day. Nine submissions were received. 

The evaluations were completed by the technical evaluation committee on June 2nd 2010 and two companies were ranked the highest according to the stipulated criteria.  The companies were the United Engineering Service Ltd and the Harry Persad and Sons Ltd.

This project was deemed to be critical to the Authority being able to continue to provide safe and secured aviation services in keeping with the organisation’s mandate, time was therefore of the essence. As a consequence, in the absence of a Board, the decision was taken to refer this matter to the Line Ministry for consideration.

The Line Ministry advised the Management of the Authority that given the urgency of the matter the two ranked bidders would be invited to negotiate and to submit proposals for the work to be done at ANR Robinson International Airport (CPIA) and Piarco International Airport (PIA) separately. Two proposals were received from the parties on September 20th 2010. Having reviewed the proposals the Management of the Authority referred the matter with recommendations to the Line Ministry and consent was granted for the award of the contracts to the United Engineering Services Ltd and Harry Persad and Sons Ltd. for the works at CPIA and PIA respectively. It is on this basis that award letters were issued to both companies on September 21st.