Virtu Ferries ‘Jean De La Valette’ to see service in Trinidad and Tobago

The ten-year old ves­sel, Jean De La Valette (JDLV), will be leased from Vir­tu Fer­ries for a pe­ri­od of one year for service in Trinidad and Tobago, a dual-island Caribbean nation near Venezuela.

According to The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian,  the pro­pos­al for the lease of the Jean De La Valette (JDLV) as a tem­po­rary in­ter-is­land fer­ry to ease up the transport woes, is al­ready be­fore the local Cab­i­net.

Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan was quoted as saying that the ves­sel is sched­uled to ar­rive by the end of May, and will re­place an ageing ferry-boat un­til two new fer­ries ar­rive in country next year.

Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of T&T (Nid­co) chair­man Her­bert George con­firmed that Nid­co had rec­om­mend­ed the tem­po­rary lease of the ten-year old Jean De La Valette, sourced from Mal­ta, to ser­vice the seabridge be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the is­sue was still be­fore Cab­i­net.

Nidco said that the sub­mis­sion from Vir­tu Fer­ries was ad­judged the best in terms of age of ves­sel, speed and pay­load RoPax (roll on/roll off pas­sen­ger) ca­pac­i­ty.

The JDLV, once in Trinidad and Tobago, will be main­tained and crewed by Mal­ta.  The fer­ry will al­so not use the Trinidad and To­ba­go flag but will con­tin­ue to fly the Re­pub­lic of Mal­ta flag.

The ves­sel will be leased from Vir­tu Fer­ries for a pe­ri­od of one year, un­til the two new ves­sels arrive.

Via The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian