NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Following months of unfulfilled promises, government announced Tuesday that the General Post Office on East Hill Street will be relocated to its new home at Town Centre Mall within the next six weeks.
Minister of Transport and Local Government, Renward Wells, who has responsibility for the General Post Office, confirmed the new relocation date to media outside of Cabinet office on Tuesday morning.
“We are looking for a complete move the third week in May for all of the Post Office staff to be in the mall,” Wells confirmed.
He revealed yesterday that incomplete drawings led to the first hold-up in Christmas 2018 and said that the move in February was stalled because the post office boxes at the current mail hub location could not be repurposed at the new location.
“Unfortunately, the boxes at East Hill Street could not be moved so we had to order post office boxes,” he explained.
“We thought we could have gotten them from Canada, we sourced them; but unfortunately we had to end up getting them from China and that put a huge delay in our construction timeline.”
With the post office boxes now installed, Wells confirmed that the construction checklist is just about complete.
“We are about 99 per cent complete with the builder’s work,” Wells noted.
“The executive offices are done, the warehouse is done, the post boxes are in, the air conditioning units are in, the electrical wires are in, the cafeteria is up and running; but, our issue is now just installing the low voltage design,” he explained.
The low voltage design includes the installation of CCTV, telephone and cable wires and other security systems, Wells noted.
While the leaser is responsible for providing a turnkey facility, covering all construction costs, government will be responsible for the purchase and installation of furniture at a price tag of 70 thousand dollars.
Once opened, Wells confirmed that government will begin hiring additional manpower to outfit the post office.
