US$145 million port among major projects earmarked for 2019

A NEW port in Kingstown valued at US$145 million is among the major projects earmarked by the government for 2019.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves revealed plans for the new port while speaking at a press conference this week. He said the port is to be located at Rose Place and will take on the structure of “three ports in one”.

“We are having the … modern container port, we having an inter-island ferry, that is between St Vincent and the rest of the Caribbean and we having an intra-island ferry,internal to St Vincent and the Grenadines,” he explained. “The designs are being fashioned for those and I want to give the assurance for the persons… who have some shacks by the bay side, that this government has never done a project where we leave people out. We make sure we take care of our people.”

Gonsalves said that the British government has provided US$40 million in grants towards the port project and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is the lead entity in respect to the balance of the cost.

The prime minister added that major technical work still needs to be carried out at the site, but he is hopeful that physical work will begin by the end of the year.

He said that the government owns property in Rose Place, near the hospital and that it will play a part in the beautification of the area and he declared that when the project is completed, more people would be interested in living in “Bottom Town”.