KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) says it is continuing to advance work on the development of Jamaica’s third city through a request for submissions from qualified entities to provide consulting services to develop a multi-criteria site suitability model to determine the optimal location of the city.

According to the UDC, the consultant will be expected to facilitate the analysis of data and aid in the identification of at least three suitable site(s) for the location of Jamaica’s third city.

The corporation also noted that major considerations of the site suitability will be resilience to climate change; ability to support the new global trends in smart growth and innovation; and ability to accommodate a target population which is anticipated to relieve Kingston of its current urban overflow and reduce the burden on the capital city’s infrastructure.

Interested individuals are being asked to attend a pre-proposal information session on November 28 at 10:00 am, at the head office of the Urban Development Corporation.

Documents will be made exclusively available for download on November 13, through the Electronic Government Procurement Portal (www.gojep.gov.jm) for those who have registered on the system.

UDC further explained that bidders will then have a five-week timeline to submit their material by December 19 at 10:00 am.

The prime minister has mandated the Board of the UDC to create the island’s third city against the background that the dominance enjoyed by Kingston, which is the centre of governance as well as the financial and commercial hub, had created an imbalance with other locations based on its excessive demand for services and the provision of infrastructure.

The third city project is currently in phase 1 — site selection. As the project progresses, there will be further engagement of the wider public in various visioning sessions. Upon securing consultancies and completing the tasks in phase 1, two other phases will follow: master planning and implementation.