MONTEGO BAY, St James — Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has expressed concern at the slow pace in which lighting issues along Montego Bay’s Elegant Corridor are being addressed.

“I am just saying that I am very distressed and disappointed, as the minister, especially [since] we provided the funds for it,” he told the Jamaica Observer on June 4 when quizzed on the issue.

Sections of the corridor have long been without working lights, many of which have been damaged by vehicles crashing into them. The lights are on a relay system, which means that long stretches of the road can be left in darkness from just one light being damaged.

The Elegant Corridor stretches from the Lilliput main road in the east and ends at the roundabout at Sangster International Airport in the west. It is home to a large number of hotels and other tourism-related businesses.

“The Tourism Enhancement Fund has provided $47 million to the NWA (National Works Agency) to be paid over to the JPS (Jamaica Public Service Co Ltd) for the refurbishing of the lights along the corridor,” Bartlett said.

The funds, he explained, have been in place for months.

“They are working through, at the minute, some technicalities. But I’m driving for us to make the technicality not be a deterrent to get the lights fixed because we provided the funds already,” the minister said.

“So I urge the JPS, the NWA and the local government to resolve this matter very quickly so that we can have the electrification activities on the strip settled to the benefit of our commuters and the aesthetics of Montego Bay,” he added.

He stressed that the work to be done will not only benefit tourism interests but also Jamaicans who use the heavily travelled road.

The minister also provided an update on efforts to repair the sign that welcomes road users to the western resort city.

“The other thing is that… the Montego Bay sign, if you notice there was a little dysfunction there as well. The part we have just gotten, it should arrive in the island next week and hopefully once it arrives, it will be installed immediately and so the illumination will return and the beauty of that Montego Bay, what I call landmark, will be there not just for all our visitors but for the joy and enjoyment of our Jamaican people,” he said.