WESTERN BUREAU:
THERE IS still no indication as to when work will resume on the much-delayed Northern Coastal Highway, which is expected to be the main connection between the major resort areas of Negril and Montego Bay.
Co-ordinator for the Northern Jamaica Development Projects in the Ministry of Transport and Works, Joseph Shako, declined to comment as to when work on the Northern Coastal Highway would resume. "The Minister has already spoken about it and I do not wish to over-ride his statements," Mr. Shako told The Gleaner yesterday.
Late last month, Minister Peter Phillips announced that eight local sub-contractors had been selected to assist in the completion of Segment One of the North Coast Highway Project and the Montego Bay Drainage and Flood Control Sub-Project, better known as the South Gully Project.
Work on the US$25 million highway project was suspended in April, when the South Korean contractors, Bosung Engineer-ing, reportedly ran into financial difficulties. Resumption of work was set for mid-August, and then for the end of September. However, up to yesterday there was no sign of any work being done.
At the monthly meeting of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce last week, the president, Mark Kerr-Jarrett, was hopping mad about the delay in resumption of work on the highway.
Mr. Kerr-Jarrett challenged government to 'get up off its feet and do something' about the delay. "It is lackadaisical, apathetic and downright irresponsible," the chamber president said. "Unless the bureaucrats in Kingston decide to fix the roads on the south coast, not taking into consideration that you have to drive on the north coast to get there, with the potholes and stray animals and all.
Mr. Kerr-Jarrett said the fact that the highway connects two major resort towns means it should have been given more attention. "Montego Bay and Negril are the major foreign exchange earners and this is how we are treated? We have waited on the start-up date in September and nothing happened now is mid-October. This chamber will not stand for it."
He said the chamber was tired of writing letters to different government officials and not getting a response. "That goes to show the disregard that they have for representative bodies. And to think we just came out of city status week, that is just a morbid joke."
