EVOLVING TecKnologies and Enterprise Development Company (eTecK) has agreed to have further dialogue with the residents who are in the path of the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate development with a view to compensation and their relocation.

The residents accompanied by Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh and attorney Gerald Ramdeen met with eTecK officials at the Tringen administration office, Savonetta, Couva on Tuesday. Media was asked to leave the office by eTecK officials.

Immediately after the meeting, Ramdeen described the discussions as cordial.

Ramdeen is providing legal representation to residents who have been served eviction notices.

He said, while they understood the importance of economic development for the future of TT, especially coming out of covid19, that development must not come at the cost of the lives of citizens.

In a telephone interview subsequent to the meeting, e TecK chairman Imtiaz Ahamad told the Newsday, “eTecK wishes to settle the matter in a very amicable way. We held a meeting with the MP and his team. The meeting went well and we do have a way forward.

“(We) all seem to be on the same page, so to speak. We expect that the matters we discussed today (Tuesday) would be carried out by all the parties and would be resolved in a very amicable manner.”

In addition to the six residents eTecK had been in negotiations with, Indarsingh said there are approximately 100 more individuals who have been in occupation on lands earmarked for the development of the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate.

He said, “ETecK has apparently now realised there are other persons living within the geography of where this industrial park has to be developed and they have committed to do a site visit with the councillor for the area, with their planners and technical team to do a further assessment and evaluation."

He said the site visit would establish whether some 100 occupants who have made the area their home fall within the jurisdiction of the development site and work out a relief package.

The company claims the land is crucial to the development of the industrial park, which is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2022 and that the occupants are there illegally.

Residents sought the intervention of Indarsingh after their homes and crops were bulldozed because they failed to adhere to eviction notices served.

The media was asked to leave the building where the meeting was held, but afterwards, Indarsingh said the residents were willing to relocate in the interest of national development.

He said their main concerns were adequate compensation and relocation to an alternative site. He said this would have to be resolved by eTecK through their line minister, Minister of Trade Paula Gopee-Scoon and Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat under whose portfolio the Commissioner of State Lands falls.

Indarsingh said he was hopeful that all parties would honour the commitments made so the matter could h