Tue, Feb 17, 2015

Plans toward making the Argyle international airport a green airport will move a step closer next month, when officials of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) return to St Vincent and the Grenadines to sign a loan agreement for USD$750,000, towards the setting up of{{more}} a Solar Photovoltaic System at the Argyle international airport.

This system will eventually provide two megawatts of electricity, but will, in the first phase of development, provide 220 kilowatts, which will partially power the terminal building.

CEO of CDF Ambassador Lorne McDonnough says the loan is a very concessional one with a two-year moratorium. According to him, the project being initiated at the Argyle international airport is a pilot project and is part of a larger green programme for the CDF, which will eventually be extended to other parts of the region.

In May 2011, the Argyle international airport was the recipient of US$4.2 million in loan and grants from the CDF. This earlier loan was used to procure a stone crushing plant, quarry and base laying equipment, which included: five dump trucks, a paver, two rock trucks, two front Eend loaders, rock hammer and the airfield lighting system and generators.

On October 9, 2011, the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines was notified that the CDF approved a second loan for the Argyle international airport, to the tune of eight million eight hundred and seven thousand, four hundred Eastern Caribbean Dollars (EC$8,807,400).

According to the CDF, the approved financing was in support of the national development objectives of the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as the mandate of the CDF relating to the reduction of disparity among member states of CARICOM.

Ambassador Lorne McDonnough was accompanied here on February 10th 2015 by Lenox Forte, the director of the Regional Development Division.(IADC)