A project announced in 2017 and launched in 2018 for the rebuilding of all of Malta’s residential roads was 95% done and would be completed by the end of next year, Roads and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bonett said on Wednesday.

Speaking in parliament, he said that 1,315 roads were rebuilt in the past six years, an unprecedented level of work.

People used to complain about a lack of roadworks in the past, now they were complaining that too much was being done at one go, he said.

Some 94% of the €700m roads project had been completed, he said, with an average of 200 roads every year, which was more than handled by the last PN administration in five years.

Some 100 roads remained to be done, he said. €634.2 million had been spent so far and €65.8m were needed for completion.

This, Bonett said, was the country’s biggest ever infrastructure project, and it needed to be seen in the context of other works to update utility services and roads furniture.

Referring to PN criticism about failure to give information in parliamentary questions, the minister said a single question had been asked covering spending on all road works in the past years. When a detailed reply could not be given, because of the work involved, the opposition had resorted to asking questions for every road done, At this rate they would have to put some 1,300 questions.

Much information was already in the public domain, he said, and more would be given in the coming weeks.