800 More Rural Households to get Electricity

Another 800 households are set to benefit from the construction of 55 kilometres of distribution lines by March 2005 under the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology’s Rural Electrification Programme, which has been allotted $53.3 million in the 2004/05 Estimates of Expenditure now before the House of Representatives.
The project, which is jointly funded, by the Government of Jamaica and the Caribbean Development Bank is aimed at extending electricity infrastructure to Rural Jamaica as part of the Government’s commitment to provide the entire island with access to power; stimulate economic and social activity in rural Jamaica and provide a better quality of life in these communities.
Originally intended to last from January 1993 to November 1996 with an initial target of 467 kilometres of distribution lines for the wiring of 6000 houses, the project has been extended several times. As at December 2003 599 kilometres of distribution lines had been constructed which benefited a total 6,214 households.