‘Massive’ shooting range project on time, will safeguard environment

Work on a large-scale shooting range in Ta’ Kandja, which covers around 23 tumoli of land, and incorporates environmentally friendly safety measures, is well underway and progressing according to schedule, sport parliamentary secretary Clifton Grima said.

Highlighting that part of the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup would be hosted on the site in the coming weeks, Grima said the shooting range, which he visited today, would be one of the best in Europe when complete, and could be used for various types of shooting sports.

Grima emphasised that the project, the first phase of which had cost €10 million, would according to ballistic experts in no way affect any aviation activity in the nearby Malta International Airport, since the range of the lead pellets which will be used on the site will have a short range.

Earlier this year, Grima had faced question by Opposition leader Adrian Delia regarding the awarding by his secretariat of two direct orders for the shooting range amounting to around €5 million.

The parliamentary secretary had said that the payments were made in relation to work currently underway, and insisted that despite promises by past administrations, the project had only gotten off the ground now. Moroever, he had maintained that there was only one manufacturer in Europe that produced the type of net required to stop lead pellets.

Grima today stressed that "the government found this piece of land, which was already state-owned and was being used solely as a dump for scrapped cars, and turned it into a project which will benefit sport,” as he noted that there were already Rapid Intervention Unit and police shooting ranges in this area.

He underscored that the special safety net, which partly encircles the range and was first used during the 2012 London Olympics, would collect within it the lead emitting from pellets which are shot. This would then be collected within days using special equipment, and recycled, in the interest of safeguarding the environment. The shooting range was designed using criteria issued by the Environmental Resources Authority and the Planning Authority.

Evidently happy with the project, Maltese sport shooter William Chetcuti remarked that the range was the “dream of every shooter”, and that he had never expected to have such a high-quality shooting range.