OFFICIALS FROM THE International Cricket Council (ICC) are scheduled to visit the Kensington site on May 9 in order to evaluate the progress being made there.

Against this background, the contractors have been pushing ahead with work on the project and not even a sacred public holiday could halt the work being done on Kensington Oval in preparation for the ICC's Cricket World Cup 2007 competition.

On Good Friday some of the workers employed at the Kensington Oval Re-development project could be seen on site busily making sure construction kept within deadline.

Public relations consultant, Ricardo Blackman of JER Associates, for main contractors Larsen & Toubro, said the workers were there "by choice".

He said, "The 60 workers who volunteered are demonstrating commitment to meet the World Cup deadlines are being paid the rates normally paid on national public holidays."

Blackman said any work done on public holidays was on a voluntary basis so he could not say whether the workers would be on duty on subsequent holidays, but said they were operating within the labour laws.

He also said there were 21 women working on the project, 16 of whom were local. (CA)