Work Underway for Titling of Lands in St. Elizabeth and St. Thomas

State Minister for Agriculture and Lands, Victor Cummings, has said that preliminary works have begun in St. Elizabeth and St. Thomas for the titling of more than 1,000 parcels of land on behalf of the National Irrigation Commission (NIC).
The State Minister, who was making his contribution to the 2007/08 Sectoral Debate yesterday (July 3) in the House of Representatives, said that the project is being embarked on under the Land Administration Programme (LAMP).
Also under LAMP, a new integrated development plan for Santa Cruz has been completed, in addition to a Participation Planning Manual, which will serve as a guide to the preparation of future integrated development plans.
“Some 32,000 hectares of land in Kingston and St. Andrew, Port Maria and Spanish Town have been based mapped and three continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) reference stations were installed in Linstead, Kingston and Lionel Town in Clarendon,” Mr. Cummings noted.
In addition, some 2,000 National Housing Trust (NHT) files have been audited as the first step in the process to upgrading the unregistered portfolio of the NHT by securing registered titles for approximately 2,500 parcels of land.
In the meantime, he informed that the Ministry of Finance has allocated $18 million to the Ministry’s budget so as to expand the network of GPS reference stations to 13.
“This completed network will comprehensively cover the island, and provide real time accurate positioning data (at centimetre accuracies), reduce production time and cost associated with traditional surveying,” Mr. Cummings pointed out.
The expansion in the network of GPS reference stations, Mr. Cummings said, will “increase the productivity of land surveyors and improve the accuracy of Geographic Information System data collection.”
“Ultimately, this network will improve the delivery of land-related and position fixing services provided by government organizations and the private sector,” he added.
The Agriculture State Minister informed the House that Cabinet has extended LAMP for an additional five years.