By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP) is 90 per cent complete, Deputy Prime Minister and minister of works, Philip Davis, said yesterday, adding that the Government had no plans to halt the project but was trying to see it completed in an "effective and manageable manner".

Mr Davis told reporters on the steps of the Churchill Building yesterday: "There are a lot of concerns about the execution of the New Providence Road Improvement project. Whether those concerns reach a level to where we have to terminate contracts, I'm unable to say at this stage.

"I have been advised that the works are 90 per cent completed. We are not stopping right now. We are trying to complete it in an effective and a manageable manner, where jobs are not lost and businesses are not closed, with minimum disruption to the lives of Bahamian people and road users."

Back in early March, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced in the House of Assembly that the Government would initiate a door-to-door survey along the corridors of the New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP) where work has been completed, with the aim of identifying those enterprises whose business had been meaningfully impacted.

Armed with the results of the survey, Mr Ingraham said the Government would be in a position to determine the major parameters of a financial assistance programme. The Prime Minister said business license and real property tax rebates were also being eyed as options. The Ministry of Finance began conducting the door-to-door survey on March 21.

A recent report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on a proposed $65 million loan, necessary to provide the financing to complete the project undertaken by the Argentinean firm, Jose Cartellone Construcciones Civiles, acknowledged the negative impact the extensive roadworks have had on multiple Bahamian-owned businesses amid "a prolonged recession".

The IDB said it was "in the best interest" of whichever government was elected at the upcoming general election to bring the New Providence Road Improvement Project "to a quick and efficient end".

The IDB report indicated that its total lending to the Bahamas with respect to the New Providence Road Improvement Project might even exceed the $206 million figure previously provided by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham to the House of Assembly. Noting that it had provided initial financing of $62 million when the project was first conceived in 2001, the IDB said this was supplemented by a further $100 million loan in May 2008, giving an "amalgamated budget of $162 million". Now, the proposed $65 million loan would, on the surface, taking the Bahamas' total borrowing from the IDB for just this project to $227 million.