Arnos Vale expected to be booming industrial site in coming years

In coming years, it is expected that Arnos Vale will be a site which will be booming with industrial activity.

Once the Argyle international airport is operational, the ET Joshua Airport will no longer be in commission. As a result, the Government is exploring the idea of transforming that site into a modern city.{{more}}

“Sixty-five acres of prime land will be made available for this mammoth undertaking, which is to be fashioned as a private-public partnership. Additional access to and from Kingstown will be provided, possibly by way of a tunnel under Cane Garden Point,” said Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves last week, in his 2015 Budget presentation.

As he outlined the major initiative, the Prime Minister noted that the Government has already established a state owned company: the Arnos Vale Development Company (AVDC), which will oversee the implementation of this project once it begins.

“Preliminary work has been done on a development concept for the area, including the urban transport requisites in and out of Kingstown. Until the AVDC becomes fully operation, another State-entity, National Properties Limited, has been spearheading the delivery of the preliminary technical and conceptual work on the proposed Arnos Vale Development,” Gonsalves said, as he outlined some details of the project.

However, these plans are not yet finalized as there are two companion exercises that suggest other ideas for the site, which include a modernized Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) and a relocation of this country’s principal seaport.

“One such exercise relates to a preliminary study, now completed, with funding secured from the European Union, which recommends the Arnos Vale site as the most suitable for the relocation and construction of an ultra-modern Milton Cato Memorial Hospital; allied to that is the secured availability of resources from the World Bank to design completely the modern MCMH,” Gonsalves said.

“The other companion exercise to the Arnos Vale city development project is the broadening, by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), of the Terms of Reference of the study by the consultants, to include Arnos Vale in the consideration as a possible site for the relocation and modernization of our principal seaport.” (BK)