Construction of a modern port will cost US$100m

As the construction of the Argyle International Airport continues, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves announced last Tuesday that the process for the proposed construction of a modern port has already started.{{more}}

Gonsalves said work was needed on various ports across St Vincent and the Grenadines, including in Bequia and Canouan, but that a modern port was a necessity on the mainland.

“In St Vincent we need to have a more modern port and twin it with real development on the water front,” he said.

“Part of the idea we are engaged in now is to move the port westward down to where we call Bottom Town,” he continued.

This will mean that provisions will have to be made to provide housing for the current residents, among other things, which were contained in a port rationalization and development study, conducted by Mott MacDonald and financed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

“This is one volume of the study and it contains all that needs to be done,” he said.

The prime minister, saying that the project is expected to change the lives of those living in Kingstown significantly, also announced that he already had a meeting with the port authority and a company on the matter.

Gonsalves said that the study showed that the project would cost US$100 million, but that the government was not looking to do it alone, but seeking a public-private partnership.

“We have to work out the parameters carefully and that is part of the strategic exercise of which we are involved,” the prime minister said. (DD)