Applications related to SmartCity were processed “within the agreed timeframes”, the planning authority insists.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority yesterday reacted to comments by IT Minister Austin Gatt that the removal of a pumping station at SmartCity depended on the time taken by Mepa to approve the application.

SmartCity’s contractual obligations to employ people according to pre-determined levels kicks in when the pumping station is removed.

The planning authority said it was processing two applications related to the SmartCity project and none of them was linked to a pumping station.

It said that planning application PA5757/09 for the proposed construction of retail block 3 was in its final stages of consideration. “This application, although submitted in 2009, was held back at the request of the applicant and by the National Commission for Persons with a Disability,” Mepa said.

It also said that a second application filed this September was undergoing the pre-screening submission process. The application filed by SmartCity Malta is for the construction of an underground storm-water reservoir.

SmartCity opened its first office block in October last year and is now building more office blocks as part of the second phase.

The project came under scrutiny since the number of jobs generated there is nowhere near that promised by the government when the contract was signed in 2007 with Dubai-based Tecom Investments, the company behind SmartCity Malta.

However, Dr Gatt has gone on record saying that the government had to fulfil its side of the deal before SmartCity’s jobs obligation kicked in. A sewage outfall in the area stopped functioning this year but the old pumping station is still standing despite it not being used. Contractually, the government was bound to remove these structures by the end of December 2008.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com