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Cabinet has approved the award of two contracts valued at $78.8 million to Bacchus Engineering Works Limited to carry out extensive infrastructure upgrading in the Central Village area of St. Catherine. The projects will be implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) under the World Bank-funded Inner City Basic Services for the Poor Project (ICBSP). The scope of work...

The Government has engaged Stanley Consultants Incorporated as its representative of the Highway 2000 project. Cabinet, at its sitting earlier this week, approved the award of a US$2.5 million contract to the international engineering consultants. The company will become the National Road Operating and Constructing Company’s (NROCC) technical advisor on all specialist areas of engineering for the project, with services...

Effective September 1, 2012, contributors  of the NHT who qualify for loans at 3 per cent interest will now only repay at 1 per cent, while contributors who qualify for loans at 5 per cent will now pay only 3 per cent. These special reduced rates will apply for three years. This was announced Tuesday June 5, by Prime Minister,...

The Government has granted the National Housing Trust (NHT) tax free status in respect of General Consumption Tax (GCT), stamp duty, property tax and transfer tax for the next two years, as means of providing affordable housing for low income workers, particularly persons who earn less than $10,000 per week. This was announced Tuesday June 5, by Prime Minister, the...

Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Hon. Robert Pickersgill, said the Government remains unwavering in its commitment to ensure that Jamaicans, who occupy lands for which they have no titles, will soon have these important documents in their possession. Speaking at the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP) titling ceremony at the Linstead Baptist Church in St. Catherine on...

Transport, Works and Housing Minister Dr. the Hon. Omar Davies is expressing regret to the family and friends as well as school community, at the death of an Ascot High School student which resulted from a crash, in Portmore, St. Catherine, this morning. The Minister said that he is saddened by occurrences where fatalities and injuries result from road crashes,...

Residents of communities surrounding the National Heroes Park in Kingston, came out early Wednesday morning to assist with the restoration work being done at the park, which was the national project for Labour Day 2012. Work at the park, which was spearheaded by members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), involved washing and refurbishing of the shrines, planting of poui...

Statistics show that a high percentage of land owners in Jamaica are without registered titles for their holdings.  This situation can have serious implications, as lack of security of tenure will affect the personal, social, economic, psychological and emotional well-being of  persons. It is against this background that the Government of Jamaica, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB),...

Transport, Works and Housing Minister, Hon. Dr. Omar Davies, says Jamaica should have a modernised Road Traffic Act and Regulations by the end of 2013. Speaking at a recent road safety seminar hosted by the Jamaica National General Insurance (JNGI) company at the Knutsford Court Hotel, Dr. Davies said the legislation will ensure that road safety issues are addressed according...

Drivers employed to the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) are to be re-trained under a safe driving campaign, Transport, Works and Housing Minister, Hon. Dr. Omar Davies, has announced. The initiative will be undertaken in partnership with the Road Safety Council and the Insurance Association of Jamaica. “We are going to ensure that the drivers of the JUTC buses are...

The rehabilitation of farm roads will continue in designated areas over the next few months under the Hurricane Gustav Agricultural Rehabilitation Project. A sum of $22 million has been provided by the Government in the 2012/13 Estimates of Expenditure to carry out this and other project activities, including providing key inputs to improve productivity of targeted crops and to rehabilitate...

Three police stations in Kingston and St. Catherine are slated to be to be upgraded by the Government this fiscal year, at a cost of $41 million. The improvement works will be done under the Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) II, which is funded by the European Union (EU). As contained in the 2012/13 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House...