Government drive for better roads

Road works currently in hand amounted to twice the maximum which Malta had ever been able to handle, Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett has told parliament.

He said the governemnt's plan was, in the short term to give the people an acceptable roads network with some parts that were state of the art, in the medium term to have a state of the art network with sections which were of acceptable standard, and in the long term, to have a state of the art network.

Mr Mugliett was concluding the debate in parliament on Saturday on the votes of expenditure of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.

He said that three major capital projects were currently well under way, the Cottonera, Manoel Island and the Cruise Liner Terminal projects.

With regards to the Manoel Island project, the biggest focus was currently on Tignè. One of the apartment blocks, which would house seven former tenants of the site, among others, was ready and would be in use next year.

Work on the piazza in Tignè was expected to be completed in 2006.

It was worth pointing out that 194 apartments at Tignè had already been sold, mostly to foreigners, for a total of Lm64 million.

The government, Mr Mugliett said, was observing its obligations on the upgrading of the utility services to these projects. Agreement was recently reached with Enemalta on the power supply to Manoel Island. Work on a new road to the area was expected to start in 2006.

The Cruise Passenger Terminal was also making good progress. This project was of major importance for the tourist industry. Some 20 commercial outlets were expected to start operating from this project from next summer. The waterfront would be opened next year, with much more of the project being completed in 2006.

There was no joy in the fact that the new road around the project had had to be closed six months after opening, but neither was there any joy in submitting people to the risk of falling stones from the bastions. The fortifications had never been part of the concession to the Viset consortium, so it had always been up to the government to maintain them.

Turning to the Cottonera project, Mr Mugliett said one of the focuses was currently on a new berth alongside Fort St Angelo, which would yield significant financial spin-offs in facilities for superyachts. Much work was being done on the rehabilitation of the Tesoreria near the Maritime Museum which would house the offices of the marina, ship chandling and catering establishments.

The yacht marina had its soft opening this year and would be completed next summer, featuring state of the art facilities found nowhere else in the Mediterranean.

A full development application for the hotel had been submitted and work was expected to start early next year for completion in three years' time. Care would be taken to ensure that construction would not harm the landscaping of the waterfront.

Work was also being done on the utility services, such as the sewage system, which would benefit the localities in their totality. The government was considering requests from developers who wished to participate in the building of the car park.

Mr Mugliett said the development brief for Dock 1 had been issued now because the area had been in Malta Drydocks hands up to a few months ago. The government had resisted requests by several developers who had asked for the direct allocation of the area to them. The government felt that a call for offers would yield better results, but it was being careful that any proposed development respected the characteristics of the area. There indeed was some concern that as proposed the development would not attract enough private sector interest. The project was currently in the consultation phase and one would have to see about that.

Turning to Fort St Elmo, Mr Mugliett said the existing development brief was not considered sufficient and the ministry was conducting feasability studies and considering various ways how the fort could be used.

The ministry was preparing or handling other projects including the Pace Grasso project where a call for expressions of interest would only follow the issue of a full development permit.

The ministry was also studying other urban regeneration projects including the Chalet in Sliema and areas in Hamrun and Victoria.

The government could have started the Floriana/Valletta Park and Ride project last October but it did not wish it to clash with Christmas. The project was spread over a number of phases, starting with an improvement of the junctions, The work would start next month.

The Valletta Connections projects had not been started because it had not proved viable, but the government was revisiting the development brief.

The government also felt obliged to continue to try to redevelop City Gate and the opera house site. The commercial potential of the area was being tested but care had to be taken not to harm the rest of Valetta's businesses. Clearly something to be done because the City Gate was inadequate for a modern country. The proposal to build a parliament on the old opera house site had also been mentioned by some Labour MPs. What was being written in the newspapers did not necessarily reflect what the majority of the people said. Certainly, the government's proposals were not an attempt to distract public attention. No decision had been taken yet and he viewed this project as the biggest challenge because of the sensitivity of the area and because of the funding problems.

Mr Mugliett said he was surprised that no one from the opposition had spoken on public transport. Over the past months the transport authority had seen a management change to instil greater dynamism. The authority also needed to be better geared on law enforcement and customer care.

In the bus service, new buses and routes were introduced, there was greater discipline and the obligations of the bus drivers had been listed.

A new system to calculate the government subsidy had been introduced. In raising the fares, the government had excluded students and the elderly, among others. The bus lanes, despite the criticism, were proving effective.

And despite everything, results were showing. For the first time in five years at least, there had been an increase, of two per cent, in the number of bus users and he was told that white collar workers were starting to return to the buses.

The bus service, however, needed to seek new markets with new destinations and greater emphasis on tourism, among others.

Turning to road works, Mr Mugliett said funding now reached just over Lm15 million, stemming from the consolidated fund, EU funds and the Italian protocol. In the adjudication of project bids, equal importance had been given to price and the bidders' ability to complete the projects on time, since delays would mean Malta would lose its overseas funds.

The government had closely monitored the works in progress with a view to awarding more works to the best performing contractors while also keeping some funds in reserve. It resulted that no contractor was ahead of schedule. Other bidders were therefore asked to submit new bids which were cheaper than their previous offers and works were allocated to them through the reserve funds. Thus Malta was now spending Lm15 million on the roads when previously Malta could not handle more than Lm7 million worth of works. This was a watershed in planning and project management.

Implementation of the projects was so well on time that he had been invited to submit another project - a stretch of road in Gozo - for an additional investment of €1.9 million. EU funds would also be used for the rebuilding of Manoel Dimech bridge.

Mr Mugliett said planning had already started on other roads and junctions which could be eligible for fresh EU funds in 2007 so that once the funds were released, the work would start immediately.

Mr Mugliett said that the ADT could have completed more roads in residential areas over the past year, but matters had got bogged down because of problems with the contractors over pricing. Nonetheless, 25 roads were completed and another 46 were planned for next year.

Earlier in the sitting, Nationalist MP Michael Asciak said that for every Lm1 the Maltese government would be forking out on roads, the EU would be giving the country Lm9. That would not have happened had Malta not joined the EU.

He spoke on public transport pointing out that the Public Transport Authority was making an effort to regularise karrozzini, an important element of the tourism sector.

Dr Asciak complained of excessive emissions by many commercial vehicles and said something had to be done about this problem.

He also called for bicycle lanes to be introduced where possible.

Joe Falzon (PN) praised the government for its rehabilitation works, notably as part of the Cottonera project, which would be continued with the rehabilitation of the Dock 1 area.

He said there had to be investment in the country's infrastructure to accommodate new development projects.

Mepa was now updating the structure plan for the next 20 years, taking a look at the past to come up with projections for the coming years. The work shoud have four pillars - job creation, the environment, community development and the transport network.

Mr Falzon said that 45,000 new residences would be needed in the coming years. One had to see what the economic impact of these would be.

He said there was already a problem of heavy traffic congestion, with the resultant problems of pollution and health. Within 10 years Malta's roads would be practically jammed with traffic, unless solutions were found.

The park-and-drive project, to be funded partly by Mepa, was a step in the right direction. The plan to introduce cable cars into the project should not be thought of as risky. It was even riskier to stand still and do nothing about a problem, he said.