Housing Authority lifts

The Housing Authority recently installed another 10 lifts in various apartment blocks, the authority said.

Apart from the first one inaugurated in Il-Fosos Street, Floriana in March this year, a further four have been installed in Floriana, two in Valletta, one in Tarxien, one in Lija and two in Ta` Xbiex.

Works are under way to put in more lifts in a number of other blocks, with works at an advanced stage in two blocks in Valletta and one in Ta` Xbiex.

The lift application scheme started two years ago in order to make government housing more accessible and to reduce the need for alternative housing.

Housing Authority architects have often had to use creative means to find ways of installing lifts in particularly awkward blocks. This might mean taking up part of a yard to house the lift shaft or the construction of a lift shaft outside the building.

The authority is assessing the first results of the project.

Housing Authority chairman Marisa Micallef Leyson said the authority had spent Lm696,761 on lifts since 1998.

These not only include lifts in old blocks but also in new blocks and disability lifts.