THE South Camp Road correctional centre will be renovated to accommodate inmates currently residing at the all-female Fort Augusta Prison, Security Minister Peter Bunting has announced.

Speaking at a press briefing at the ministry’s New Kingston offices on Wednesday, Bunting told reporters that there will be total separation of the juveniles from the adults as the two facilities will have no physical connection.

“That compound will be divided into two discreet, totally separate, though adjacent, facilities. They will be divided by a double fence (and a partition), so there won’t even be visual connection between the two,” he stated.

Bunting said it is expected that work on the facility will begin in the first quarter of this calendar year and will be completed within a few months.

Government, the minister said, was also exploring the possibility of a public/private partnership for the construction of an additional facility.

Lands at Port Henderson, where the Fort Augusta Prison is located, is needed to facilitate the expansion of the port.

Just yesterday the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce announced plans for a series of islandwide public consultations to sensitise citizens about the Government’s plans for the country’s logistics hub initiative.

Portfolio minister Anthony Hylton said activities will begin with the meeting of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce next Wednesday.

He told the opening ceremony for a Logistics Hub Retreat, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, that the development of the proposed trans-shipment and logistics hub was being undertaken by the Government in a bid to position Jamaica to take advantage of the anticipated increased maritime activities expected to result from the expansion of the Panama Canal, by 2015.

The project will have six separate but complementary elements, that will include the dredging of the Kingston Harbour; expanding port facility at Fort Augusta and Gordon Cay; establishing a dry dock facility at Jackson Bay, Clarendon; establishing a trans-shipment commodity port facility near Yallahs, St Thomas; developing the Caymanas Economic Zone; and developing an air cargo and passenger facility at Vernamfield, in Clarendon.