The Government is considering a proposal to spend $1 million each week to provide private security at the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre.

The National Contracts Commission and a subcommittee of the Cabinet have already approved the plan, but it now needs the endorsement of the full Cabinet.

Local firm Protection and Security has won the contract which is valued at $52.7 million.

Details of the contract have not been released but sources say it will be for one year and will see the company providing 24-hour armed and unarmed security at the transport centre.

Overall responsibility

The contract was put to tender by the Port Authority of Jamaica, which has overall responsibility for the facility.

Protection and Security will replace Atlas Security which has held the contract for the bus park since it opened in January.

The private security service at the bus park will complement the police who now operate from a post in the facility.

In addition, a search is now under way for a security supervisor who will have overall responsibility for the supervision of the security activities at the transport centre.

The decision to beef up security at the centre is in response to several violent incidents since the facility opened.

These include the fatal stabbing of a young man by a group of persons just outside the transport centre.

Students clash

In March, a clash between boys of Calabar High and Kingston College resulted in one student being injured.

That followed a one-month period in which 11 incidents were reported in the centre.

The most significant was a knife fight between two students on January 28, during which both boys were injured.

Similarly, a male high school student was wounded with a knife during an alleged robbery attempt by another student on January 30.

"We are not taking an alarmist approach, but instead are proactively relating to the sensitivity of the centre's security, considering the wide public usage of the facility," said Victor Green, the general manager of the transport centre.