KINGSTON, Jamaica – Bids submitted to undertake construction of the new Houses of Parliament are currently being evaluated, Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, has said.

He advised that the intention is to break ground in the first quarter of 2023/24 and start construction by the second, citing June 2025 as the estimated completion timeline.

“The new Parliament building will become the fulcrum of development to transform downtown Kingston. I will be declaring the Parliament’s construction a National Strategic Project to signal the importance and priority nature of the project,” Holness said.

He was making his contribution to the 2023/24 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 16.

Holness said the vision of independent Jamaica’s founding fathers, was that National Heroes Park would become the administrative seat of Government with the Parliament at the centre and ministries and civic buildings surrounding the new edifice.

“The intention to do this was clear with the location of the Ministries of Finance, Social Security, and Education. Like so many of our national visions and plans, we have been distracted, diverted, indecisive or just incapable of turning vision into reality, not realising that the longer we wait, the harder it is to get done. Let us be the generation of Jamaicans who get things done.,” the prime minister said.

The Urban Development Corporation will manage the construction of the new Parliament building at National Heroes Park.