Of forts and docks

Usually, when I meet people who are not familiar with politics in Malta I end up explaining the areas falling under my ministry's remit. The roads remit is much wider than the word "roads" implies. In fact, it includes everything that has to do with land transport. The "urban development" remit covers the capital projects of a certain magnitude that the government has spurred in partnership with the private sector.

The fact that these two sectors were combined under one ministry highlights their importance to the economy and the delicate moment the two areas are going through, particularly the upgrading of our road network. The capital budget for roads for the coming three years is historically unprecedented for Malta and calls on us to proceed with these works with a rigorous project management methodology.

This same methodology is the only way to ascertain the progress on urban regeneration projects. When it was set up, the ministry took over three major capital projects that were already on stream, namely, the Cottonera regeneration project, the Valletta Waterfront as well as the Tigné and Manoel Island project. Besides progressing according to the parameters established, these projects evolve due to various reasons; one of the government's responsibilities is to ascertain that this evolution respects the public interest.

Part of the brief I was given on being appointed minister responsible for this sector was to launch new capital projects. The three principal projects I was asked to start off were the development of the Dock Number One area in Cospicua, the Opera House site and Fort St Elmo in Valletta.

The interest shown in each of these three sites is impressive. This is evident from the number of letters appearing in the print media and the number of potential developers or brokers of developers who approach the ministry with proposals at regular intervals. We are naturally only too glad to hear such proposals because these give different angles of the potential of the sites.

Opposition spokesman Charles Buhagiar, writing in The Times (August 7), referred to a meeting I held with potential investors who had shown interest in developing Fort St Elmo. While agreeing that their proposal was interesting, I must point out that the organisation they were representing was asking for an immediate response and a direct arrangement.

As a former minister responsible for public works, Mr Buhagiar must know that our laws and the public interest do not allow us to entertain requests that would not have passed through a competitive selection process.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Roads is at present pushing ahead with the launch of four primary projects, namely, the development of the Schreiber site in Paola, the Dock Number One area, the Park and Ride for Valletta and the Opera House site. These four projects obviously require preparatory processes that vary from one another.

On the Schreiber project, the government's intention is to launch a call for the development of the site after the permit to carry out the development is obtained. Feasibility studies have been concluded while procedures with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority are well advanced. Work is now proceeding on the finalisation of the plans.

The procedure on Dock No. 1 is different in that the drawing up of a development brief for the area involves referring to past development plans and coming up with a new brief focusing on the area.

It is our intention to launch the development brief and call for tenders for this project towards the end of September.

The development of the Park and Ride project at Crown Horn Works will see the government taking a more active role. The first stage of this development includes critical work on the junctions leading to the site and the relocation of some industrial concerns.

It is neither possible nor desirable to work on, or launch, different projects within a short time span. The launch of the Fort St Elmo project unfortunately has to wait a couple of months more so that the appropriate studies, feasibility exercise and brief are prepared.

The past few months, however, saw the government taking bold steps to safeguard this historic site. The lower part of the fort in fact received a much-needed thorough clean-up.

The squatters who had taken over the site were removed and 24-hour security measures were put in place. Lower Fort St Elmo has already been turned into a site for cultural activities.

The urban regeneration projects that we are now looking at touch upon some of our most valuable assets. While preparing the groundwork for the process that will allow us to reap the full benefit from these sites, we have to keep in mind that these assets offer unique opportunities for regeneration. We have only one chance to get our work right.