Gozo tunnel movement wants project up and running by 2028

Gozo risks turning into a retirement island if a tunnel is not built soon between it and Malta, the group campaigning for the project has warned. 

“We are in a race against time,” Gozitan law student Jonathan Mintoff told MaltaToday. “Gozo’s population is declining and business on the island is suffering, due to its poor accessibility.” 

He noted that there is only one shop in his own home village of Ghasri, that caters for the village’s 300 or so mostly elderly residents. 

“A trip from Helsinki to St Petersburg by train these days lasts two hours…that’s around the same time it takes to travel from Mgarr to the centre of Malta.” 

Mintoff, along with fellow Gozitan students Beppe Galea and Carla Galea, set up the ‘Front Favur il-Mina’ late last year to campaign in favour of the tunnel proposal.

Although both government and Opposition have backed the project, the students are not resting on their laurels and have warned that time is of the essence. 

The reason is that the three Gozo ferries will eventually wear out and will have to be decommissioned by 2030 at the latest, according to projections by economist Gordon Cordina. 

Cordina conservatively predicts that the replacement will cost around €120 million, with maintenance and fuel costs estimated at a further €21 million per year. 

“The tunnel will cost around €300 million and will have a lifetime of around 100 years, so it will be more financially sustainable than the Gozo Channel in the long-term,” Mintoff said. “However, it must be up and running before the ferries are decommissioned, ideally in twelve years at the latest. 

“Given that the project is expected to take between seven and ten years to build, we are still in time, but only just. It’s a ticking time-bomb…” 

The Front Favur il-Mina will hold a national conference in Mgarr on Saturday, in which they will urge the government to commission geological, environmental impact and social impact studies on the feasibility of the tunnel as soon as possible. 

“Unfortunately, government has been dragging its feet on commissioning such studies,” Galea said. “It certainly seems like a viable project – there are 25 sub-seabed tunnels in Norway after all – but what’s the point of speculating without any concrete data?” 

Gozo’s population is officially estimated at 37,000, but the Gozitan students warned that this figure includes people with Gozitan ID cards who live in Malta and that the island’s population is closer to 15-20,000 people.  

They poured cold water over criticism that a tunnel would deal a blow to Gozo’s individual identity and charm.   

“Gozo has already lost its identity, through the constant brain-drain of its workers and graduates to Malta,” Beppe Galea said. “Gozo is slowly but surely changing for the worse, and we want to turn the wheel around.”  

Similarly, Carla Galea insisted that Gozo will maintain its unique identity post-tunnel and will not become an appendage of Malta. 

“Gozo is currently a shadow of Malta. It will remain an island after the tunnel is built, but simply become a more accessible one.”

“Time is money, and time wasted travelling on the ferry everyday could be time spent to invest in the company,” she added, noting that Cordina’s study estimates a tunnel to slash the journey time between the two islands by around 45 minutes.

The students suggested that the project be financed through a public-private partnership, with a private company operating the bridge and charging vehicle-specific tolls. 

“4.6 million passengers travelled on the Gozo Channel in 2014, compared to 4.2 million who travelled via the airport that same year,” Mintoff pointed out. “Besides, although the tunnel is often considered a Gozitan project, it is estimated to boost the entire country’s GDP by around €20 million.”

What about the distant future? Do the students envisage a tunnel connecting the Maltese Islands to Sicily and mainland Europe?

“Never say never,” Mintoff laughed. “The possibilities are endless…”

Front Favur il-Mina’s national conference will take place from 9am-12pm at the Grand Hotel in Mgarr. Guest speakers will include Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, Gozo Business Chamber president Michael Grech, Gozo Tourism Authority chief executive Joe Muscat, Gozo Channel chairman Joe Cordina, sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino, engineer Simon Mizzi and geologist Peter Gatt. 

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