PRIME Minister Andrew Holness says the Government is looking to redevelop the tourist resort town of Ocho Rios in St Ann to accommodate its rapid growth.

“In terms of the size of the investment we are looking to make, it’s in the billions of dollars so it is a huge investment — and the reason for that is because the entire town of Ocho Rios is being looked at for redevelopment,” Holness told vendors and other stakeholders during a tour of the Ocho Rios market last Friday.

“I know you [the citizens] see that your town is growing, a lot of people are coming into your town, a lot of housing developments are going on around the town; and just outside of the town we see some other areas developing as well,” he added.

“The infrastructure that is here cannot carry all the activities that you have so we are going to have to do some really serious investments — and the first investment that we need to make in improving your town is improving the market,” the prime minister added.

Holness said the plans to upgrade the market and transportation centre will be put into effect in short order.

“For the last five years we have been refining a plan which will see the upgrade of the market [and] the upgrade of [the] transportation centre — and not just the clothes and the food [market] but we also have to do something for the craft markets,” he said.

“My tour here is to see the actual physical conditions on the ground so that I can reconcile what we have on paper versus what actually exists,” Holness added, and assured stakeholders that they will start to see significant changes soon.

“We have a comprehensive plan which we are going to start to put into effect very shortly to do some simple things: First to improve the sanitary facilities in this market, and then to improve some of the street areas to create exclusive pedestrian zones,” he said.

The tour of the market formed part of a working visit to the parish by the prime minister which included a tour of a new classroom block being constructed at Exchange All-Age School and a tour of the Ocho Rios Pier to examine recent damage.

He also visited Pimento Walk Road to look at road work in the area, and toured Little Dunn’s River.

Accompanying the prime minister on the tour were minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Senator Matthew Samuda; mayor of St Ann’s Bay Councillor Michael Belnavis; deputy mayor of St Ann’s Bay Councillor Dallas Dickenson; and senior strategist and advisor in the Ministry of Tourism Delano Seiveright.