- JUNIOR DOWIE/Staff Photographer
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson (second right), flanked by government colleagues and Highway 2000 contractors, cuts the ribbon at the official opening of the Bushy Park to Mandela segment of Highway 2000 yesterday.
John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson yesterday made it clear that motorists will have to pay to use Highway 2000, and he will not tolerate any threats to stall the construction of the toll road.
He, however, stressed that the Government was prepared to give discounts to frequent users.
"I am not getting into any quarrel with anybody who doesn't want to use this road (the toll road); those who want to use it, let us be free to use it, but we have to pay something," the Prime Minister said, during a ceremony to officially open the new 21-kilometre Bushy Park to Mandela segment of Highway 2000 yesterday.
BULK PURCHASING
"I would suggest, however, that both for this road, and especially for the Portmore Causeway, we begin to look at the question of bulk purchasing. In the same way you get a frequent flyer benefit when you travel on aeroplanes there should be some special discount that is made available," Mr. Patterson emphasised.
The Prime Minister said yesterday that he was confident that the operator of the toll road, Trans Jamaican Highway (TJH), would have no objections to the bulk toll rates, saying "we are prepared to look at that but the answer is not talking about boycott, and certainly I want to make it clear, when it comes to the blocking of the road, that is totally out of the question."
The Prime Minister's comments come following complaints by some members of the public that the toll charges were excessive. Already, residents of Portmore are about to engage the Government in a legal battle to stall work on the Portmore to Kingston segment of Highway 2000. They have been objecting to plans to transform the Causeway main road, the main access/exit route in and out of Kingston, into a toll road.
According to Mr. Patterson, the construction of the island's high-speed dualised motorway is the window to development, which, he said, was already impacting positively on the economic development of the country. He, however, pointed out that "progress has a price". "It is not free...somebody has to pay for it," he said. "Either the taxpayer or the customer for whom the service is provided."
Robert Pickersgill, the Minister of Transport and Works said: "This new roadway is an excellent piece of work built to satisfy the highest international standards of road construction."
