fp Turks and Caicos

More than three years after initial agreements were signed, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government Coastal Radar Station project is finally moving forward.

After a long battle to get the radar project up and running, “real progress is on the horizon,” said Permanent Secretary Boarder Control and Labour Clara Gardiner.

On Monday, Dec. 5, His Excellency the Gov. Gordon Wetherell signed two agreements, including an exchange of land with Sherlock Walkin giving the government much needed access to the project’s location along the shores of Five Cays on Providenciales.

Walkin owned an adjacent parcel of land to the project, blocking road access to the property planned for the station. The government had been in negotiations with Walkin for some time to resolve the issue.

The governor called the signing of the land exchange agreement with Walkin a vital step in the implementation of the project and the delivery of a radar tracking capability for the TCI.

“Due to the preset economic conditions in the TCI, it has taken many months to secure funding,” added Project Manager Fred Skovberg. “Thanks to the efforts of Clara Gardiner and a number of dedicated people we have achieved this important milestone.”

With the last roadblocks now being removed, it is only a matter of months until the shores of the Turks and Caicos will be more secure, said Skovberg.

“It is well recognized that trying to cost-effectively protect our boarders requires technology that is over and above a number of police boats,” he said. “We need something that looks over the entire coast.”

“As we have seen over the past few years, unprotected boarders facilitate the flow of criminals, drugs and weapons into the country thereby creating an environment where crime can flourish.”

Estimates have been reported that illegal boats were landing weekly on the shores of the TCI. Skovberg says those numbers have been significantly reduced in recent months, thanks to the increased operations of the Royal Turks and Caicos Police Force.

The new radar is not just about reducing crime. Skovberg says it will also help in emergencies which require search and rescue operations. The station will have radios that allow them to communicate with the police in their vehicles or police boats on the water. They can help pinpoint any object, be it a boat, person or location.

The station will include one medium range “x-band” coastal radar. The 5.5-meter reflector antenna will be installed atop a 40-meter tower, where it will have a 180-degree view of the busiest coastal area in the TCI. “The radar is a state-of-the-art system able to detect a target as small as 2.7 square feet at 22 nautical miles.

The radar can operate in a complete 360-degree circle, but will be automatically switched off as it scans the 180 degrees over the land of Providenciales.

The station is planned to be operational by early spring of 2011. It will also include a staff quarters, as the radar will be manned 24 hours a day.