GOJ Spending $ 3.5 Billion on Road Rehabilitation

State Minister in the Ministry of Housing, Transport Water and Works, Richard Azan has informed that the Ministry will be spending some $3.5 billion to repair Parish Council roads across the island.
“We will be doing some work in all the parishes across the island. We have done a lot of road repairs (already) in Manchester, Clarendon, St.Catherine, St.Thomas and Westmoreland,” Mr. Azan said in a JIS News interview.
“The cry from the majority of our citizens is about the condition of our roads. The Prime Minister, the Honourable Portia Simpson Miller had said that we need to concentrate on the community roads and farm roads, because we spend a lot on the highways and the major roads. So the programme was geared towards achieving some of this,” he noted.
Mr. Azan further informed that the nature of the works include full rehabilitation of road, laying of asphalt, construction of drains, and the building of retaining walls.
The road rehabilitation project, which began in January and will be completed by April, is being funded by the Government of Jamaica. Contracts for the works were signed in November of last year.
The State Minister pointed out that the residents were responding positively to the rehabilitation work. “So far the responses are good.The taxi operators are feeling much happier, because at least they do not have to spend money on replacing parts,” said Mr. Azan.
He urged the communities where work has not yet begun to, “be patient as we are putting together another programme for the new financial year that will be able to target some other roads across the island.”