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Minister of Urban Development Hon. Julian Francis said the Modern Port project is an extremely important one, because of the need for another trans-shipment port in the region which would reduce waiting time and setbacks.

“We need to construct a bigger, better wharf and Jetty”, Francis said. He added that “those of you in the shipping industry know the amount of time we have to wait because Jamaica is one of the main trans-shipment port and in the two years that we had, we had serious setback in Saint Vincent…”

The modern port would encompass two jetties, an intraregional jetty and the other to facilitate boats for travel between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The new port would span approximately 16 acres of reclaimed land from Little Tokyo to Rose Place.

The project is the largest in the history of the Caribbean Development Bank, with a loan of 110 million US dollars, the single largest loan since the CDB was established over 50 years ago among 16 borrowing nations in the region, additional contributions of 39 million US dollars by the United Kingdom is the largest contribution to a project in the region.

Minister Francis said this is a reflection of the confidence they have in the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which is a stable government. The Minister also announced that the road which leads from Little Toyo to Rose Place will be completely closed to allow for construction work.

He noted that there will be guidelines as to the traffic diversions and alternative routes, but the public can expect certain “inconveniences” as construction on the 600-million-dollar facility gets underway.  

SOURCE: Agency For Public Information