International call for Gozo-Malta tunnel construction out next year

An international call for proposals for the construction of a tunnel linking Malta and Gozo will be issued in six months’ time, Ian Borg said.

The Transport Minister said this call would be taking all environmental factors related to the construction into consideration.

He was speaking at a special Cabinet meeting held at the Transport Malta Centre in Lija on Tuesday morning. The meeting focussed on infrastructure and transport projects.

A special Cabinet meeting was held at Transport Malta's offices in Lija

Borg said that the tender for project management had been issued a few months ago, and that the geological model for the tunnel had been completed.

“We now established the route of the 13.5km tunnel, from Limbordin in Malta to Nadur in Gozo,” he said, highlighting that the government had a “clear mandate” for the project to go ahead, with 83% of Gozitans being in favour of it.

The minister went through other road-related projects which the government had embarked on.

He said that the third phase of the Marsa junction project will now be starting, with a new traffic management plan for the area expected to start operating later this week.

“This project will see seven new structures being built… eventually allowing us to do away with all the traffic lights,” Borg said.

Touching on the Central Link Project, he said this would be leading to an improvement in air quality in the area, which sees 30,000 cars pass through it daily.

He also said that the Regional Road bridge outside the Santa Venera tunnels will be elevated to reduce the degree of a turn that is accident-prone. This forms part of a project to add two new lanes to the stretch of road between the Santa Venera and Tal-Qroqq tunnels.

When it came to the widening of roads, Borg said that it was “unfair” to say that this wasn’t an effective way of solving the traffic problem.

He emphasised that “short-term” interventions were necessary, because, in the absence of a mass-transport system, people will keep using their cars.

Turning to the ferry service, he said the number of passenger trips last year had shot up to 1.3 million, a substantial increase over the previous year.

Regarding Malta’s status as a leading ship registry, he said that 25% of all ships which are currently being built worldwide have already committed to flying the Maltese flag in the future.

Following Borg’s round-up of projects falling under his remit, the Prime Minister gave his stamp of approval for the work being done in the sector.

“All this demonstrates that work is being undertaken following a certain strategy,” Joseph Muscat said.

“We are changing Malta for the better, and in the future people will ask how we were able to live without the infrastructure we created, including the Gozo tunnel,” he added.

Journalists were invited to follow the first part of the meeting, which then continued behind closed doors.