he chronic traffic congestion which has been plaguing Montego Bay for quite sometime, should be eased soon, as the National Works Agency (NWA) will this month begin the implementation of a $40 million traffic management system in the resort city.

The chamber president argued that one of the major factors affecting Montego Bay's traffic flow is the matter of indiscipline drivers-particularly taxi and minibus operators

The state-of-the- art project which is being funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), is expected to be completed by the end of August.

According to Janel Ricketts, the community relations officer for the western region, the system consists of a Traffic Management Centre (TMC), coordinated traffic signals and an Incident Management System (IMS).

"The TMC will be the site at which all the communication between traffic signals and cameras takes place. Specialists at the TMC will have the ability to monitor traffic operations along major corridors in real time and make signal changes in response to traffic demand," she explained, adding that the traffic signal system consists of more than 20 traffic lights linked to the centre.

Ricketts pointed out that the IMS consists of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras located at key intersections within the city centre. This, she argued, will allow the close monitoring of traffic conditions, and allow for the formulation of the appropriate responses.

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