Improving Transport in St. Kitts
(ZIZ News) — Minister responsible for Transport, Hon. Ian Liburd says his ministry is in the process of finalising plans for the implementation of a Traffic Safety and Public Service Transport board.
In an exclusive interview with ZIZ Television, the minister said this Board falls under the Vehicles and Road Traffic Act and will advise him on relevant matters.
“That Board will advise the minister on rates and on other issues as it relates to public,” he said, adding that “It also has appellate jurisdiction.”
“In the past we had the Commissioner of Police who was in fact the Traffic Commissioner. That has since changed and the authorities have now invested in this particular board. So the Board will advise the minister of issues like rates,” Minister Liburd explained.
He said one area of concern that the Board is expected to address is traffic congestion, particularly in the Basseterre area.
“You find you [have] lots of congestion downtown, you [have] lots of violations and transgressions of the traffic laws and so on. The police have its role to do yes, but the Board will advise the minister on things like these amongst other traffic safety matters as well,” he explained.
Minister Liburd also disclosed that the government has discussed the idea of a second highway in St. Kitts.
“Obviously you see what’s happening in the Basseterre area in particular, there is a view that we should take some of the traffic out of town, there’s for instance if you look at the Conaree area, there’s a view that we should connect via the Conaree area, there’s also a view that we can connect via the Phillips area but that requires money, so we are discussing it,” he said, adding “We did not include it in our budget this year but in terms of a feasibility study, we are hoping to get some funding at least to do the feasibility studies on opening road access outside of the present disposition that we have now.”
The Traffic Safety and Public Service Transport Board comprises the bus associations and will include the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority.