Road Improvement Programme Allocated $330 Million

A total of $330 million has been allocated to the Road Improvement Programme in the 2013/14 Estimates of Expenditure, currently before the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives.

            With funding support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the project aims to promote the creation of a self sustainable system for the provision of safe and reliable national road network.

            It also seeks to support the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing in the implementation of a new framework for administering the main road network; strengthen the core activities of planning, programming and budgeting for the road sector; and the maintenance, design and construction of roads within the national network under the auspices of the National Works Agency (NWA).

            For this fiscal year, the money will be used for procuring equipment, goods and services necessary to facilitate the institutional strengthening of the Road Safety Unit; continue and achieve 100 per cent completion of civil works – continuous bushing along approximately 270 kilometres of the 300 kilometre-long Northern Coastal Highway corridor.

            Achievements to date include: procurement of office equipment; procurement of goods and services to facilitate road markings and signage; award of maintenance contract to undertake the routine maintenance of continuous bushing along sections of the Northern Coastal Highway; and the training of 20 Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing/National Works Agency staff in Project Management.

            The project, which commenced in April, 2010, is slated to end in March 2015, and is being implemented by the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing.

By Chris Patterson, JIS Reporter