Dear Editor:
Your
article “PM Outlines Plans for South Coast Roadway” published on
Thursday, June 16, 2016 states that current administration will not
construct the south coast highway as previously planned for
south-eastern Jamaica.
It would
seem the Government has forgotten that the Logistics Hub facility
stretches across four parishes: Clarendon, St. Catherine, Kingston and
St. Thomas. In fact, a bunkering and commodity transhipment port is
proposed to be built in St. Thomas, and highway 2000 links it with the
remaining parts of the hub.
This
alone is justification for the project. Or, has this component of the
Logistics Hub also been scrapped? I hope not, especially considering
that the proposed location of the port at Cow Bay (Old Bowden Wharf),
near Yallas, has a naturally deep draught capable of berthing the
largest of vessels.
If these
plans are still active though, it should be realised that companies are
spending billions of dollars to construct facilities in St. Catherine
because they are expecting, in the words of Nestle Jamaica’s Country
manager Jurg Blaser, “... a logistic footprint closer to the port and
the major consumption centre of the corporate area ...”.
Paul Hay is a Jamaican national, founder of PAUL HAY Capital Projects: a consultancy, based in Kingston Jamaica, with a vision of providing strategic planning and implementation services to organizations for non-residential facilities in the Caribbean.