POWELL

John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter

There could be a smoother flow to traffic traversing the rugged terrain between the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St. James, and the multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny for the Cricket World Cup (CWC).

Senior Superintendent of Police, Elan Powell, said the contractors have under-taken to bring the roadway to an advanced state of readiness in time for the event.

"Work has started on the airport to Flankers road," said SSP Powell, the head of the Police Traffic Department who is also on the Local Organising Committee's (LOC) transportation subcom-mittee. "They have also started work on the Flankers to Falmouth road."

He said based on consultations with persons close to the project, "the surface we will have to drive on will be good". The senior superintendent said the work should be done in two weeks as the team will be working 24 hours to have it completed in time for the opening ceremony scheduled for the Trelawny multi-purpose stadium on March 11.

As part of the yellow package, Jamaica will be hosting the opening ceremony, several warm-up and preliminary round matches with the West Indies and one semi-final.

But Robert Pickersgill, Minister of Transport and Works, in a brief inter-view on Tuesday, said the dualisation of the north-coast highway between Falmouth and Montego Bay would not be com-pleted in time forthe event. The section between the airport and Falmouth has remained unfinished, despite several extensions for the completion of the dualised highway which stretches to Ocho Rios, St. Ann.

Important fact

However, SSP Powell said it was important to have proper road surfaces along the major routes to the venues for the event - the first of its kind for Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean - as it would make it much easier to escort the more than 25 heads of state and VIPs, as well as the 16 teams expected to attend the opening ceremony in Trelawny.

"We will have adequate personnel. We met with over a hundred personnel from traffic (Police Traffic Department) and everybody understands what their role is and what they have to do on match day," SSP Powell noted. "I know it's going to be a lot of work, but I am confident that we can do it."