TOURISM and sport minister, Portia Simpson Miller, recently disclosed that an additional $22 million has been earmarked under Operation Grow, to fund the Sustaining the Environment and Tourism (SET) Programme until the end of the financial year.

The SET programme, which is managed by the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), is aimed at improving and sustaining the physical and social environment of resort towns through beautification, addressing sanitation and hygiene issues, enhancing visitor convenience and anti-harassment and community relations.

Simpson Miller made the disclosure while speaking at a presentation ceremony for 103 Ocho Rios vendors trained under the SET ‘Sanitation, Hygiene and Environment Workshop’ at the Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios recently.

She said that some of the funds would be spent on the cleaning of drains and open lots in collaboration with the Parish Council and gave details on some major projects to be undertaken in Ocho Rios under SET during the financial year.

These include beautification under the SET Streetscape Programme to improve the facade of buildings, and the establishment of a holding area on Evelyn Street in Ocho Rios for contract carriage operators who operate at the cruise ship piers. This facility is being provided in an effort to reduce the congestion at the piers.

Giving details on the holding area, Minister Simpson Miller said: “Instead of operating from the cramped space at the pier on ship days, taxi operators will be able to stay comfortably in the holding area and be called by the radio when they are needed to collect passengers.”

The tourism minister added that the Streetscape project “will act as a catalyst to encourage everyone who operates a business or who has a building in the town to participate in the facade beautification exercise”.

Specific projects include the development of an urban park at 68 Main Street; the beautification of the entrance to Old Market and the adjacent building, and the beautification of the sidewalk from Brown’s Plaza to James Avenue.

She said the latest initiatives represented the revival of the SET Programme which began in Ocho Rios in 1996, adding that the programme involved the collaboration with government ministries, agencies and departments, with private sector, non-government organisations and community-based organisations.

While in Ocho Rios, the minister toured a number of SET Programmes, including the new security post and information centre on the One Love Trail; the Clock Tower, One Way System and the tree-planting exercise on the Ocho Rios Development Road.

She said the security post was a welcome addition to the One Love Trail and was designed to improve visitor convenience and strengthen the anti-harassment programme. “It is a very attractive unit, fully equipped with light and water and designed to accommodate personnel from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), and the TDPCo Information Officer corps. Resort Patrol Services will also have a presence”, she stated.

Beautification efforts on the One Love Trail have also seen landscaping and the planting of flowers and trees.