$17 million transport centre for Hanover
HOPEWELL, Hanover – The Hanover Parish Council is now finalising plans to construct a $17 million transport centre at Hopewell in the parish.
It is a move geared at alleviating the problem of traffic congestion and the lack of parking space for taxi operators in the coastal town.
“Over the last five years there has been a significant increase in the number of taxis and buses operating out of Hopewell, and this is becoming a growing concern in the area,” Vasca Brown, the councillor for the Hopewell Division, told the Observer on Thursday.
The result, he said, has been that taxi operators have resorted to parking along the roadway while contributing to the problem of traffic congestion in the town.
It is against this background that the council has opted to forge ahead with plans to construct the transport centre. Brown, who is also the deputy mayor for Lucea, said that already land had been identified on a property in Hopewell, for the construction of the facility.
The land, he noted, is owned by the Postal Corporation of Jamaica in Hopewell and negotiations are far advanced for its acquisition. At the same time, he said that design drawings for the centre had been approved.
“Estimates have already been done. The drawings have been done and the floor plans have also been done, in conjunction with the technical persons from the Postal Corporation of Jamaica,” Brown said.
He added that the council had identified a portion of the funds, which will be required to begin the work and said that representation had been made for the Ministry of Local Government to provide the rest.
“We have already identified $5 million, which we want to use to start because we want to develop it in stages. And we have already sought the intervention of the ministry of local government, to assist in the development of the property,” he said.
He was, however, unable to say when construction would begin, in light of the ongoing negotiations with the Postal Corporation.
“At the moment I don’t want to commit myself to a timetable for the start because we have not yet signed off on the land,” the Lucea deputy mayor said.
He said, meanwhile, that the Council was looking to construct shops at the facility to help ease the problem of street vending in the town, while also setting up a police post.
