Westmoreland, Jamaica — A $497 million road rehabilitation contract was signed Friday at Culloden, Westmoreland to improve the roadway between Ferris Cross and Belmont and also the road between Montego Bay and Whitehouse, in the parish.

"This major road rehabilitation project will significantly improve the movement of goods and people as well as increased road safety and reduce travel time,” Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said at the contract signing held at the Colludon Vocational Training Centre.

“Importantly too, the upgrading of the corridor from Montego Bay to Whitehouse and Scott's Cove is of strategic economic importance. It will provide for maximising tourism and other development opportunities on the south coast," the Prime Minister added.

Simpson Miller noted that the time had come to focus on the country's "sleeping giant" — the south coast.

The roadwork is being done by the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing through the National Works Agency (NWA) under the Transportation Infrastructure Rehabilitation Programme which is funded by the Inter American Development Bank (IDB).