Mike Henry yesterday insisted that the Government has not granted an increase in the toll rates for the North-South link of Highway 2000, saying that there are unresolved issues relating to the operation of the road.

“Motorists will not be faced with an increase in toll rates come September 3,” Henry, the transport and mining minister, said in a news release.

He said that until the issues are amicably resolved he will not approve an increase in the toll rates. As such, Henry said he is continuing to have dialogue with the developers, as he seeks a joint approach to resolve the issues.

Henry did not say what these issues were in his release yesterday. However, in a news release on Wednesday, he listed them as access to security cameras, the timely repair of the landslip near Treadways, and breaches of the security fence near some communities.

Henry’s statement came after his ministry published notices in yesterday’s daily newspapers advising of an application for an increase in the toll rates by Jamaica North South Highway Company.

The application is for increases in the toll between various entry and exit points along the 66-kilometre road. For the longest stretch – Caymanas in St Catherine to Mammee Bay, St Ann – the toll operators are seeking an increase from the current discounted rate for class one vehicles from $915 one-way to $1,360. The cost to drivers of class two motor vehicles would move from $1,837.50 to $2,730; while class three would jump from $2,775 to $4,090.

Yesterday, Henry emphasised that “while the proposed published rates are indicative of the maximum that can be charged at this time, they do not represent the final rates”.

He also pointed out that the application for new rates is in keeping with the provisions of the concession agreement signed between the operators and the former Government.

But Henry’s announcement that he will not be granting the increases at this time, which comes against the background of the operators losing money on the US$730-million project.

Information obtained by the Jamaica Observer shows that the cost of using the highway has proven prohibitive to many motorists.

“How it is gaged is that if, within a minute, standing on the highway you don’t have two cars passing you in either direction, the road is not being profitable,” one State official familiar with toll road operations told the Observer.

“What is happening now is that on a given day you have about 5,000 vehicles using the North-South link of the highway; that’s about six times less than what they expected it to be,” added the official who requested anonymity.

Yesterday, before Henry’s announcement, outgoing Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President William Mahfood described the proposed rate increase as exorbitant and said it would make it extremely prohibitive for commercial traffic to use the road.

“My view is that there is very little chance of any commercial traffic utilising that road, which means that there is going to be more congestion on the old road trying to get to [and from] the north coast,” Mahfood said.

“What concerns me the most is that, after the initial announcement of the toll, there was supposed to be a period of discussion where people could send in submissions to the ministry, and we at the PSOJ actually asked for a meeting with the ministry and went and had discussions, and said we thought there were opportunities for the toll road operators to put in place certain preferential rates for commercial vehicles for late at night and for when there is low load traffic, etc,” he said.

“We were never really given any feedback that, yes, they would look at it, or anything of that sort. It was basically just, ‘okay, thanks for advising us’, and that was it. At no time were we told, ‘okay, we’ll do a review and we’ll come back for further dialogue’,” Mahfood said.

Responding to the ministry’s invitation to the public to make submissions on the proposed rates by August 30, Mahfood suggested that that would not have any bearing on the final decision.

“This is historically how the process works; you send in your submissions, they have a meeting, and they go ahead and do it anyway. So it seems to be a lot of lip service that these bodies are paying to civil society and the private sector,” Mahfood added.

Yesterday, a female motorist who lives in Kingston, and who said she uses the highway at least once per month, described the proposed rate as “excessive”.

“I am from St Ann, and I do use the road when I go there. When I exit the toll at Mammee Bay, in no time I’m in Brown’s Town, so it really cuts time and all those corners [along the old route],“ she said.

However, she said that if the new rate is approved it would cost her too much for her journey.