The Transport Ministry is being challenged to reveal all studies related to the proposed tunnel between Malta and Gozo through a judicial protest filed by 12 organisations. 

They also asked for a Strategic Environmental Assessment to be carried out as required by national and EU laws.

"This game of hide and seek and of withholding essential information must stop. The proposed tunnel will have enormous and far reaching consequences on the health, quality of life and environment of all who live in Malta and Gozo," the NGOs said.

Citizens cannot be left in the dark about the true implications of such momentous decisions.

"We call upon the authorities to publish all the studies so that citizens may develop an opinion based on facts. That is a major principle of democracy.”

Read: Hold your horses on Malta-Gozo tunnel, NGOs warn

The 12 organisations filing the judicial protest are: Din l-Art Ħelwa, Ramblers' Association of Malta, Nature Trust (Malta), BirdLife Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta, Moviment Graffitti, the Archaeological Society Malta, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Kamra tal-Periti, Isles of the Left, Bicycle Advocacy Group and Żminijietna – Voice of the Left.

The Church Environment Commission had also joined NGOs warning there was no reliable information in the public domain

The government has shrugged off criticism that the public was not adequately informed about its planned tunnel linking Malta and Gozo, insisting the studies would be published "soon".

Plans for a 13-kilometre tunnel between Manikata and Nadur will be forging ahead, the government said, insisting the project was part of its 2017 electoral mandate.