MoBay bypass road to start soon - Dr Chang
Published:Friday | August 31, 2018 | 12:00 AMAlbert Ferguson/ Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Government has applied for a loan from the Exim Bank to build the Montego Bay, St James, perimeter road, commonly called the Montego Bay Bypass, for which construction is set to commence in the 2019-2020 financial year.
"We have applied for the funding, and I know somebody will ask, if you don't get it, what happens?" said Dr Horace Chang, the member of parliament for North West St James, at a town hall meeting in Montego Bay on Thursday night.
"I want to say it's one of the more interesting things because we have a condition in the contract that states if we don't get the money from the Exim Bank, 12 months after the design is finished, the Government will fund the Montego Bay perimeter road."
He added, "I can say with confidence, if we don't get the money to borrow from China, and we are only borrowing because we made a commitment to borrow, and we don't vary our words in Government, but if it doesn't come on time, we will have the money to build the road."
Chang continued, "The Government of Jamaica will fund the road if we do not get the money to borrow, and we will start this road during the course of the next financial year. I can inform this meeting that the Cabinet has signed off on the contract. That much we can tell you. For years, we talked about this road and we never settled on anything to finance it, but we now have a route."
He said that the Montego Bay perimeter road would transform the productivity in and around Montego Bay, adding that it would also ensure that the commercial lands in Freeport and Bogue, the Ironshore lands, which are commercial lands, would be opened up "and the business people out there should pay us a commission because their land value will double when this road is finished".
The route of the Montego Bay perimeter road will start in Ironshore, in the proximity of the Whiter Village, and will continue in the direction of Salt Spring, Cornwall Court, through Porto Bello, through Granville and end up on the Bogue Road.