Managing Director of Construction and Industrial Equipment Limited (CIE), Rayneau Gajadhar, has vowed to complete St Jude Hospital “no matter what it takes.”
In a video shared on the government’s Facebook page Thursday (and recorded on December 24), the contractor noted that “We have a job to get done… sooner rather than later.”
“We will be working right through the Christmas holidays and New Year’s. Whoever chooses to work during the Christmas period I will be there working with them because I think the people in the stadium need to have a good Christmas next year. No matter what it takes this hospital is going to finish,” he said.
“Everything I start I finish,” he noted.
The video has amassed over 6000 viewers since it was shared on Thursday, however, it is just under two minutes long.
CIE and Caribbean Consulting Engineers (CCE) were both awarded contracts to work on St Jude’s. The final phase will focus on completing new wings, external works, and climate-proofing measures.
“The rest of the works will be completed pretty fast and we will make good headway,” CIE Construction Manager Pawan Joshi said in August. He added that there is ongoing progress at the site, with the more delicate aspects to be completed.
Construction work on the fire-ravaged hospital has not been without its share of controversy. Fire gutted the southern medical facility about 15 years ago, and four successive governments have struggled to complete remedial works at the site.
More recently, however, the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) administration has committed to bringing this project to fruition. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Philip J Pierre, there has been a shift in building policies geared to manage the strategies for the completion of this project effectively.