Sports Minister Anil Roberts made the announcements following the regular cabinet meeting.
Roberts said the construction of community centres and recreation grounds could create 3,500 jobs over two years and result in 800 permanent jobs.
He said the major facilities will include a velodrome, a tennis centre, and a swimming centre in honour of Olympian George Bovell III.
“We are going to take sport to the people,” Roberts said, adding that an aquatic centre in Bovell III’s honour will be built in Mucurapo. Bovell won bronze at the Athens Olympics in Greece 2004.
Other projects include a velodrome at Mount Hope and a national tennis centre.
The three large projects will cost about $735 million.
“Today is a red letter day in the history of sport in Trinidad and Tobago<" Roberts told reporters. “These facilities have been promised since the days of the father of the nation Dr Eric Williams.”
Roberts recalled that as far back as 1966, Dr Williams promised to build a 50 metre pool, “for the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.”
He said, “Subsequently, many ministers and parliamentary secretaries came went and promised and nothing was done. George Bovell III won a bronze medal and made history as the first person in the English-speaking Caribbean to win a medal and was promised a 50 metre pool,” Roberts said.
He noted that again nothing was done by the government of the day beyond the promise.
Roberts also said he would work with the Ministry of Education to have swimming made a compulsory subject at primary school.
“All of us live on two island states and there are too many instances of drowning every year while we lime at the river or on the beach...Every child must be water competent, water safe,” he said.
With respect to cycling, he reminded the media of cycling greats such as Gene Samuel. He, said Samuel missed out on a bronze medal because he rode on a “borrowed bike”.
Roberts said, “Now our cyclists will have a world-class facility in which to prepare, to train, to race and to encourage young people to get involved in cycling.”
The proposed National Tennis Centre will have six indoor courts, six outdoor courts and one centre court with a seating capacity of 3,000.
“These facilities are not only to serve our locals but also a thrust to diversify the economy with sport tourism,” the minister said. He said estimates of revenues from visitors from the United States showed that the project could yield about $8.1 million per year and fund the running of the facility.
Roberts promised that there would not be a repeat of what happened at the Brian Lara cricket stadium at Taruba, which is still incomplete.
The project started by the Manning PNM administration was budgeted at about $400 million but more than $1.1 billion has been spent so far and it's not yet finished.
“The projects will be monitored for budgetary constraints to ensure that a disgrace like the Brian Lara Stadium will never happen again,” Roberts said.
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