President Danilo Medina was in Punta Cana yesterday, Wednesday 20 November, to attend the official inauguration of the Boulevard Turistico del Este (BTE) and nearby roads and sidewalks for a total 65.2 km of major access roads in the eastern tourist area. The works are reported to have cost US$110 million.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Public Works Gonzalo Castillo said the investment was made given President Medina’s commitment to the tourism industry. He reminded his audience that during his political campaign the President had defined tourism as the engine for the country’s economic development.
Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia said that the works have brought order to the leading tourist area that has helped create a new tourism model. He said the new boulevard matches the standards of the large hotel complexes in the area, a world-class destination. The executive vice president of the Hotels and Tourism Association (Asonahores), Arturo Villanueva, said that the Minister was in a class of his own compared to other ministers in the sector. Garcia aspires to be the presidential candidate for the PLD in the 2016 election and is actively campaigning nationwide.
The Grupo Punta Cana president, Frank Rainieri, speaking for investors, said that the highway would also contribute to reducing traffic accidents, which he said were so detrimental to the country’s international tourism image abroad. Part of the funding for the highway was provided by the hotel sector in the region and will be discounted from the investors’ taxes. Rainieri said that around 2.5 million tourists would arrive via the Punta Cana International Airport, which services the most passengers in the country and the Caribbean.
The symbolic inauguration took place at the intersection known as Cruce de Coco Loco, centrally located in the Bavaro section of Punta Cana. The Boulevard Turistico del Este is 30 km long, of which 26.4 km are four lanes wide, two in each direction from the Punta Cana International Airport. Another 3.6 km of two lanes continue to Macao in the north, 4 km of the Uvero Alto extension. The project also includes a further 17.2 km of secondary roads and sidewalks in Bavaro, Cabeza de Toro and Punta Cana area. The Boulevard Turistico is designed for a speed limit of 100 km per hour.
The works on the Boulevard Turistico del Este include the intersections of Manantiales, Cabeza de Toro, Coco Loco, CEPM Cocotal, Av. Papo Aveja, Friusa and Av. Estados Unidos. Other works that have been completed are the access road to Cap Cana, paving of sidewalks along the Estados Unidos, Espana, Italia, Francia, Alemania, Barcelo, El Cortecito and Friusa avenues and roads in Bavaro. Sidewalks were also built in roads within Cabeza de Toro. An access road to Uvero Alto has been built, and 7 km of the highway from Uvero Alto to Miches to the north of the Punta Cana region. Cisneros Group of Venezuela is investing in a major tourism development in Miches, where a Four Seasons hotel is expected to open by 2015.
During his stay in Punta Cana, the President also attended the III Hopefor Initiative Conference at the Palma Real Paradisus Convention Center, and the Third Dominican Congress for Local Authorities attended by mayors from all around the country that took place at the Hard Rock Hotel Convention Center.