Gozo businesses say Storm Harry revealed need for a Malta-Gozo tunnel

Gozo’s leading business lobby wants the government to reignite talks about developing a permanent link between the island and mainland Malta.

The Gozo Business Chamber said this past week’s adverse weather conditions had once again highlighted Gozo’s accessibility challenges and reliance on a sole mode of transportation – sea ferries.

“People were stranded, and flights and appointments were missed because our sole mode of transport between the two islands could not operate,” it said.

Gozo Channel ferries linking Malta and Gozo were suspended for periods on Monday and Wednesday and for all of Tuesday as high-speed winds rendered crossings dangerous. A fast ferry service was also cancelled for even longer stretches, for similar reasons.

A bipartisan push to develop an undersea tunnel linking Malta and Gozo was effectively scrapped some years ago after years of planning and preparatory work. The government had said in 2023 that it intended to “re-examine” the tunnel idea, but nothing has emerged from that pledge to date.

The Gozo Business Chamber, which was among leading proponents of the tunnel idea, said on Saturday that the discussion should be revisited.

It praised plans to reassess the accessibility of Mġarr Harbour, noting that it would form part of a task force focused on that which was announced this week. It also took note of a government pledge to add two ferries to the Gozo Channel fleet by 2029.

But, it said, this project did not exclude parallel work to develop a more permanent connection between the two islands.

“The planned expansion of the Gozo Channel fleet and the permanent link project would complement each other, strengthening the island’s resilience,” it said.

A lot of work focused on developing a permanent link has already been done, it said.

The chamber’s calls for a reignited debate about a permanent link between the two islands follows a similar call made earlier this week by a permanent secretary who lives in Gozo.

Ronald Mizzi, who is spearheading civil service work on the government’s Malta Vision 2050, wrote on Facebook that he was forced to miss a family funeral because there was no way of getting to Malta during the storm.

“I can live with that (pun intended),” he wrote. “But there may be others whose situations are far more critical: people whose lives or health are at stake, who simply cannot afford to wait, irrespective of weather conditions. Yes, one may argue that such events are not frequent. But when they happen, and when they happen to you, that argument offers little comfort.”

Mizzi's call was endorsed by, among others, Gozo Regional Development Authority CEO and former Infrastructure Malta boss Ivan Falzon, who said a permanent link would also help ease "bottlenecks and burdens" placed on residential areas around the two islands' ports, such as Għajnsielem, Xemxija hill and Manikata.