Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Services
(The Jamaica Observer, Arlene Martin-Wilikins, May 13, 2005)
Chinese team to make third visit for rail revival
A team from China's CAMC
Engineering (CAMCE) is to make a third visit to the island this
month, for preparatory works for the rehabilitation of the
island's railway.
Last month another team from
CAMCE, including the company's vice-president, visited the island
to meet with representatives of the National Investment Bank
(NIBJ) to gather technical and financial information for use in
their proposal.
"They submitted a list of
questions seeking technical information," the source told the
Observer yesterday.
The upcoming visit will see the
CAMCE team undertaking "actual work" in terms of
assessing and inspecting the railway tracks.
"It appears that the
preparatory work will lead up to the coming of another technical
team to start the 'real' work," the source revealed.
The development came as a
follow-up to February's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
between Jamaica and China to revive the railway following what
sources said then was a proposal from China.
The proposal was among a dozen
bilateral agreements signed between the two countries during the
China-Caribbean Trade Fair, and its collateral event - an economic
forum held over four days in early February.
Under the agreement, China would
also provide "adequate types and numbers of passenger
coaches, cargo, wagons and locomotives" for the system,
signalling that the revival plans include both passenger and cargo
transport.
The February agreement came three
years behind the 2002 timetable initially announced for the Indian
group RITES to get the trains rolling again.
Government had signed a near
US$3 million with RITES that would guarantee a 25-year lease to
the group as well as a 30 per cent stake of the Jamaica Railway
Corporation.
Government has been trying to
privatise the rail service since 1999, a decade after it was shut
down due to years of losses and deterioration of the rail
infrastructure.
However, the Ministry of
Transport and Works has maintained that the Chinese agreement
looks closest to reality than previous arrangements.
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