The US$274.5-million Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project is expected to go a long way in addressing the city’s traffic congestion and will be a crucial element in its continuing urban development.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony in Montego Bay, St James, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared that Montego Bay is pivotal to Jamaica’s economy and is the home to many local and international hotels. It is also home to the country’s largest and busiest airport.

He went on to describe it as the centre of entertainment, gastronomy  and a major centre for BPOs.

“Strong business enterprise thrives here. It is a growth centre in the island. After Kingston, Portmore, Spanish Town, Montego Bay is the fourth largest urban area in the English-speaking Caribbean.

“Montego Bay was declared a city in 1980. It achieved city status because it was growing. It did not achieve city status because we planned for it to grow. The enterprise and the energy that exists from the people here is growing much faster than the city bureaucracy  can both manage and structure it,” declared the prime minister, who turns 50 this week.

US$70 MILLION TO EXPAND AIRPORT RUNWAY IN MONTEGO BAY

The Holness Government’s raison d’etre is prosperity and national development. It wants to broaden the economic capacity of Jamaica’s second city and in addition to the US$274.5-million Perimeter Road Project, is spending over US$70 million from government resources to expand the airport runway in Montego Bay.

The prime minister continued: “People are not going to wait on Government for their prosperity. But  if we pursue our own individual prosperity it can result in chaos and that can become the binding constraint to achieving the full potential of the assets within your city. So at some point in time, the Government has to step up and play its real role.

“Traversing the town of Montego Bay is like a nightmare. Traffic congestion, the lack of seamlessness and integration of services, flooding, the cleanliness and maintenance of the city, water woes are all big problems here.

“I want you to think of this project as an instrumental and deliberate action on the part of the Government to address the unplanned growth of your city and finally place the city on a pathway for it to realise its full potential.”

Getting around the city of Montego Bay is despairing. It hinders a thriving metropolis and is an impediment to the crucial tourism industry. Visitors want to make it from their hotels and villas to the airport without hassles and delays.

Easy travel is essential to people engaged in business and the importance of this factor did not go unnoticed by the prime minister.

 He explained: “For many people, traffic means business. When you have too many vehicles that are not doing business in your town, it limits the business you can do, so you have to give the option to persons who are not doing business in your community while the people who are, can move about with ease.

“We are expecting that this investment will drastically relieve traffic in the town. If you build it, they will drive on it! It is not so much the building of the road that will be the ultimate solution –  it is how you network the roads and make them smart. It’s how you organise the town itself around the road infrastructure.

“This critical investment which we are here to break ground for is part of a significant infrastructural development package and improvement that will drive Jamaican economic recovery, improve our productivity, stimulate growth and boast employment in western Jamaica.”

The prime minister reiterated that this perimeter project is about improving Jamaica’s cities and townships  by granting the infrastructural seeds to the country’s prosperity.

“Your Government is improving Jamaica’s physical infrastructure and facilities such as roads, bridges, ports, schools, hospitals, police stations, water and sewage lines, critical digital infrastructure and other structures crucial to national development.

“Let me emphasise that these types of infrastructural developments and improvements are critical to the creation of an interconnected system of efficient and sustainable urban solutions,” said Holness.

READ:

• Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project to ease traffic burden, boost business in the west
• Ambassador Chen Daojiang | Infrastructure investment important to socio-economic development of a country