The Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) is ’not proud’ of the Brian Lara Cricket Academy project in Tarouba, the corporation’s deputy chairman, Dr Krishna Bahadoorsingh said yesterday.

He was speaking at a news conference at UDeCOTT’s office in Port of Spain where he addressed the controversy surrounding the corporation’s decision to challenge the validity of the Commission of Enquiry into its operations in court.

’That happens to be a project we are not proud of. We all know that. Things didn’t go well there. We have about 60 projects going on at the moment,’ Bahadoorsingh said.

The Academy was a subject of the Enquiry and during the proceedings it was revealed in March that it then had an estimated cost of $621 million. It is part of the proposed Tarouba Sporting Complex that was originally estimated to have a total cost of $850 million in May 2005.

The Academy which includes a cricket stadium had an original estimated cost of around $275 million in 2005.

It is yet to be completed.

Bahadoorsingh was asked under what circumstances would the board resign given the delays and cost overruns in several UDeCOTT projects including the Academy.

In response, he noted that ’hardly anyone refers to the Waterfront project’ which includes the two 26-storey towers that comprise the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Centre and the 428 room Hyatt Regency Hotel.

’Nobody looks at the Waterfront project. Here’s a project, $1.8 billion, the largest project in the history of Trinidad and Tobago done within budget and within time. That project was equivalent to Hasely Crawford winning a gold medal. We have finally arrived at the methodology, the right system to be able to do projects of that kind, to be able to do more like that but nobody refers to that,’ Bahadoorsingh said.

He said in this context, the Academy is ’a project we would have done very differently in the past, if we had to start all over again’.

’I am not at liberty to give you details to how, what we would have done differently, this is a subject for the Commission and that is not one of the projects we could be proud of, I admit that,’ Bahadoorsingh said.