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Chinese team arrives this month on railway revival mission
ARLENE MARTIN-WILKINS, Observer staff reporter
Thursday, April 14, 2005
A team from China is expected to visit the island this month to conduct a detailed feasibility assessment for the rehabilitation of the island's railway.
This comes just two months after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Kingston and Beijing at the China-Caribbean Trade Fair in Kingston.
Yesterday, Robert Pickersgill, the transport and works minister, told the Observer that vice-president of China's CAMC Engineering (CAMCE), Wang Yuhang, visited the island recently for discussions on the rehabilitation of the Jamaican railway, and that the visit of this Chinese team later this month is a follow-up to those discussions.
"CAMCE has since advised the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) that it is interested in the rehabilitation/construction of the railway system in Jamaica," Picksersgill said.
The engineering company, the minister also confirmed, wrote to the NIBJ on Monday to seek information, through a technical and financial questionnaire, for use in its proposal.
Government has been trying to privatise the rail service since 1999, 10 years after it was shut down due to years of losses and deterioration of the rail infrastructure.
In February, both nations signed an MOU to revive the railway following a proposal that sources say initially emerged out of Beijing.
The MOU was among nearly one dozen bilateral agreements signed between Jamaica and China during the China-Caribbean trade fair, and its collateral event - an economic forum held over four days at the National Arena and Jamaica Conference Centre.
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 in the near US$3-million agreement with the Indian group, RITES, for the trains to start rolling again.
In exchange, India would have received a 25-year lease and 30 per cent ownership of the Jamaica Railway Corporation.
Yesterday, Pickersgill was optimistic about the latest development.
"The Chinese are very serious people," he told the Observer. "My experiences with them in the past have always been good and I can't recall any situation in which they have promised and not delivered."
However, he added: "Time will tell. It's still early days yet."
Chinese team arrives this month on railway revival mission
ARLENE MARTIN-WILKINS, Observer staff reporter
Thursday, April 14, 2005
A team from China is expected to visit the island this month to conduct a detailed feasibility assessment for the rehabilitation of the island's railway.
This comes just two months after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Kingston and Beijing at the China-Caribbean Trade Fair in Kingston.
Yesterday, Robert Pickersgill, the transport and works minister, told the Observer that vice-president of China's CAMC Engineering (CAMCE), Wang Yuhang, visited the island recently for discussions on the rehabilitation of the Jamaican railway, and that the visit of this Chinese team later this month is a follow-up to those discussions.
"CAMCE has since advised the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) that it is interested in the rehabilitation/construction of the railway system in Jamaica," Picksersgill said.
The engineering company, the minister also confirmed, wrote to the NIBJ on Monday to seek information, through a technical and financial questionnaire, for use in its proposal.
Government has been trying to privatise the rail service since 1999, 10 years after it was shut down due to years of losses and deterioration of the rail infrastructure.
In February, both nations signed an MOU to revive the railway following a proposal that sources say initially emerged out of Beijing.
The MOU was among nearly one dozen bilateral agreements signed between Jamaica and China during the China-Caribbean trade fair, and its collateral event - an economic forum held over four days at the National Arena and Jamaica Conference Centre.
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 in the near US$3-million agreement with the Indian group, RITES, for the trains to start rolling again.
In exchange, India would have received a 25-year lease and 30 per cent ownership of the Jamaica Railway Corporation.
Yesterday, Pickersgill was optimistic about the latest development.
"The Chinese are very serious people," he told the Observer. "My experiences with them in the past have always been good and I can't recall any situation in which they have promised and not delivered."
However, he added: "Time will tell. It's still early days yet."
Chinese team arrives this month on railway revival mission
could make for a fun adventure in our old age...yes, I know....it might be a nightmare too...but worth exploring. Nuttin ventured, nuttin gained. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
Is this for real? Kinda selling the soul huh?
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