The Port Elizabeth Harbour in Bequia will soon be given a facelift as the Bequia Harbour Front Development Project gets on the way.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Port Authority and Sea Operations SVG Ltd. signed a contract on Tuesday valued at over EC$200,000 for the restoration of the jetty in Bequia.{{more}} This is the second part of a two-phase project which included the setting up of the Grenadines terminal in Kingstown as phase one.

Noting that the project was in keeping with the government’s promise to develop the tourism product, General Manager of the Port Authority, Paul Kirby, pointed out that restorative work would also be done in Canouan and Union Island.

Kirby noted that next phase of the project would be the scheduling of the arrival and departure of ferry vessels so that the wharf, which were often congested, could have a more organised structure.

The port manager pointed out that boat operators sometimes used the wharf to do repairs to their vessels and that this practice had to stop. “A wharf or a pier in any port facility is not a place for repairing your ship or boat, it is for the landing of cargo or passengers. I want to appeal to ferry operators in Bequia to cooperate with the port officer Johnny Ollivierre so that we can have a smooth operation and enhance the efficiency in general,” said Kirby.

Meanwhile, Director of Grenadines Affairs Herman Belmar expressed delight at the signing of the contract to get the reconstruction of the pier carried out. He described the ferry berth and ferries as the “umbilical cords” that connected the Grenadines to mainland St Vincent and considered Port Elizabeth waterfront as the “heartbeat” of the Grenadines. He said the project would also enable work to be done in the harbour at Admiral Bay where there was congestion and clogged drains.

Civil Engineer Brent Bailey who is also the Project Manager announced at the signing ceremony that there would be several upgrades, notably repairs to the dock that was partially demolished in a storm, replacement of small sections of the wharf edge and reconstruction of a section that had partially collapsed. The project is expected to be completed in three months.