Prime Minister Perry Christie, who once called the Arawak Cay port deal an “abomination”, said he is even more convinced now that the port has been completed.
Christie said he is “disturbed” by the port’s proximity to eating establishments, describing the impact as being potentially “unhealthy” and “intrusive”.
But Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis defended the decision to relocate of the port yesterday, declaring that it was the “right decision”.
Christie said, “This is a very, very serious matter and I drew it to the attention of my ministerial colleagues who were sitting here.”
The prime minister made the comment while at Arawak Cay on Friday for former parliamentarian Charles Carter’s 70th birthday celebrations.
“I’m going to have a discussion with those who run this place because when they first said there was going to be a port here, the Ingraham government indicated that the traffic would be at night when things are down and in the wee hours of the morning,” he said.
“Everyone has ignored that now that [the deal is] done. “It’s happening here and I can tell you it’s something that we have to be careful about.
“Sitting here we have been constantly disturbed by the heavy trucks and heavy traffic coming from the port. And I knew a long time ago that this was the wrong place to put a port.”
Christie said his experience at Arawak Cay on Friday has helped him to reconfirm his position.
“[It] helped me to inform public policy by giving me the experience of sitting here and seeing what happens to the people who are trying to eat as the dust comes from trucks which are uncovered… It’s very difficult and it seems to be unhealthy,” he said outside Frankie Gone Bananas, one of the restaurants at the Cay.
“The noise is an intrusion on people’s well being.”
Arawak Cay Port Development Company (APD Limited) built the port on Arawak Cay after former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham reversed a plan the previous Christie administration had to locate the port in southwest New Providence.
Minnis said he is not surprised by Christie’s recent comments as he has made similar statements in the past.
Minnis said the Ingraham administration negotiated a good deal for the Bahamian people as it relates to the port’s relocation from Bay Street.
“We would have done our work,” he said at a press conference at the Free National Movement headquarters yesterday.
“We feel that, that port is in the right place. We reduced the traffic on Bay Street…Traffic can move properly now. I think it is working properly.”
The port has been in operation for more than a year.
APD owns 40 percent of the port’s shares, the government owns another 40 percent and the public owns 20 percent.
APD Limited holds a 20-year exclusivity agreement with the government whereby no port can be established within 20 miles of New Providence or Paradise Island.
By Krystel Rolle
Guardian Staff Reporter