Prime Minister Andrew Holness has outlined what he described as a “train line” of infrastructural developments for Portland, creating new opportunities for employment and housing for residents in the long term.
Among the plans for the northeast parish are housing developments in Fairy Hill and Norwich, as well as the highly anticipated construction of a new town centre in Boundbrook.
In making the announcements at a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) mass meeting in Port Antonio, Portland on Monday night, Holness told supporters not to follow the opinions of naysayers, as his Government is working on their behalf.
For the new town centre in Boundbrook, Holness said it will have 65,000 square feet of space for a business process outsourcing (BPO) facility, which is expected to employ approximately 3,000 people.
The town centre will also lessen congestion in Port Antonio, and create more space for other development there, the JLP leader announced.
“We have already scoped, designed and identified the alignment, and identified the lands which will need to be acquired to build a bypass for Port Antonio,” he said.
Elaborating, Holness said the bypass would start in Boundbrook, going through the hills, and terminating in Boston.
“It will unlock 3,000 acres of land. That 3,000 acres of land will be used for affordable housing, so people like you here will be able to afford a properly built house in a proper community with proper facility,” Holness stated.
In Passley Gardens, the Government intends to build 664 houses, for which the engineering and architectural designs have already been completed.
“We are now in the process of finalising the acquisition of the land (there),” Holness said, declaring that such development plans are not merely promises but are already on stream to commence.
“We don’t have nuh pipeline. We have a train line of things coming,” he told jubilant party supporters at the jam-packed political meeting.
In Norwich in Ann-Marie Vaz’s Portland Eastern constituency, the prime minister said 140 houses are now being planned, with the work expected to start in the next 16 months.
Continuing, he pointed to the Fairy Hill area of the parish, where the Urban Development Corporation has an estimated 200 acres of land.
Holness said he has given instructions for those lands to be used for housing construction, with approximately 300 houses resulting from that work.
“The proceeds from that, however, will be used to make the Winifred Beach a state-of-the-art, most modern, public beach there is in Jamaica,” he said.
“Whole heap a things a gwaan. Nuh follow weh yuh hear dem a say. Your Government is working for you and your community,” Holness indicated.
