A buoy to enable cruise liners to safely moor off Xlendi Bay was laid over the past weekend, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt said today.

Five cruise ships stopped off Gozo last year, anchoring off Mgarr or Xlendi, but timesofmalta.com reported last month that no calls are planned for this year.

The laying of a buoy off Xlendi had been on the cards since 2006, when the cruise ship Seabourne Pride anchored off the bay. Although a small number of other ships followed, their masters had complained that engines could not be switched off because the ships dragged anchor.

In September 2007, then Transport Minister Censu Galea had said the government was developing plans to build a cruise liner quay on the outer part of the Mgarr breakwater to provide berthing facilities for 200-metre long liners. A planning application was submitted to Mepa in 2003 but no decision was taken about it.

MEPA granted the necessary permits for the buoy off Xlendi in August 2008 and Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono had said at the time that the facilities were expected to be in place within a few months although no specific date was given.