ST JAMES, Jamaica — Minister of Transport and Mining Audley Shaw has announced that a second transport centre is to be built in Montego Bay, St James next year.

Shaw made the disclosure during a tour on Thursday of lands owned by the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC). A three-acre section of JRC property has been deemed a good fit for the project.

“One of the things we are going to do is, on the southern side, where the railway corporation used to have the station, we are going to turn that into another transport centre,” Shaw said after the tour.

The plan, he noted, is to build a facility that is twice the size of the existing one that drivers of public passenger vehicles have often complained is not big enough. Their complaints have grown louder, recently, with a police push to get them off the streets as part of a wider move to restore public order to the streets of the western resort city.

READ: MoBay cabbies say transport centre cannot fit them all

Shaw said the new facility will be known as the Southern Transport Centre and will also be used by Montego Bay Metro buses.

The transport minister said the project will be jointly funded by his ministry, the local municipal corporation, and other government agencies.

“We’re going to find the money to build a nice, second transport centre,” he promised.

Meanwhile, the current centre, which is located on Barnett Street, is also set to benefit from some work, including the construction of additional public toilets.

Mayor of Montego Bay Councillor Leeroy Williams welcomed Shaw’s announcement.

“From the municipal corporation perspective, you will realise that the town of Montego Bay is congested in terms of traffic and so we want to build a modern transportation centre. As a matter of fact, this is part of our strategic development plan,” he said.