KINGSTON, Jamaica—Energy Minister Daryl Vaz says his ministry is working with the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to have electricity restored to areas in western Jamaica where there is high concentration of automated banking machines (ABMs) and point of sale (POS) systems that are not operational.

“The report that I got as of December 9th, was 96 per cent of point of sale machines and 89 per cent of ATMs were available islandwide. In the worst affected areas, Hanover was 57 per cent, St Elizabeth 53 per cent and Trelawny 64 and machines that are still out of commission are still awaiting replacement parts or have to be replaced altogether. Which means badly damaged. All other parishes including Westmoreland, 73 per cent have availability of at least 70 per cent,” Vaz told the Jamaica Observer Press Club on Thursday.

The energy minister said special focus will be given to restoring electricity to major towns by Christmas and the New Year, with the mobilisation of some 300 linesmen in the coming days. This follows a US $150 million loan agreement between the power company and the government to facilitate efforts for JPS to build back its grid that suffered catastrophic damage from Hurricane Melissa.

READ: Gov’t completes negotiation with JPS for US$150 million loan

“That will be a big part of the linesmen that are coming specifically to those areas. That will be automatic aspect of it because that is a essential service in a disaster, if you don’t have money in a disaster you no have chance,” Vaz said.

“The approach of JPS and the government to light up all major townships, all major townships have several banks and ATMs so those will be a priority in terms of the areas that we are picking to restore light between Christmas and New Year,” he continued.