Promised infrastructural projects omitted from the budget

Members of the opposition complained in Parliament yesterday that major infrastructural projects were behind schedule while nothing was being heard of others, such as the rebuilding of the opera house, the rehabilitation of Fort St Elmo, the redevelopment of the White Rocks complex and the new Gzira link road.

Charles Buhagiar, MLP spokesman on infrastructure services, said some road works originally planned under the Italian financial protocol had not been carried out, such as the road from Attard to Rabat and roads in the Zurrieq, Zejtun and Marsascala areas.

He could not understand, Mr Buhagiar said, how both ends of the Zebbug road had two lanes either way while the central part only had a single lane each way. The minister had said this stretch would be widened in another phase of the project next year. He would bet this would never happen. Furthermore, access to Zebbug had been better planned originally.

Mr Buhagiar said the newly-surfaced road to Siggiewi suffered serious flooding problems.

Works on the road at Tal-Qlejja were supposed to have been completed at the end of 2004 but the road was only opened last July. The same could be said about the road from Qormi to Luqa and the Mgarr Road, where works were continuing. Was this road to have the cycling lanes which had been promised?

Mr Buhagiar said works on Mtarfa bypass, started in 1999, had still not been completed. When would this project be finished?

The Mosta ringroad had finally been opened, but costs were twice what was projected and there were problems at the junction with the road to Naxxar.

Mr Buhagiar said there was an ethical issue over the choice of contractor for the rebuilding of the Regional Road Bridge. While he was not implying anything, the contractor, Design Resources, included architect Robert Sant who declared each year that he gave Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett a retainer of Lm4,000 in view of his professional office. It was not ethical for an architect to be awarded work from a department led by the person receiving Lm4,000 from him.

Only 70 local roads were done up this year when works were required on 700. Mr Mugliett had evaded questions on how the roads were selected, mentioning only forthcoming local council elections! No reasons had been given over why this minister had discontinued an agreement reached by his predecessor, Censu Galea whereby local councils were paid to build new local roads.

Mr Buhagiar said that although works were supposed to be done on a new road through Gzira from the Regional Road, ahead of the Manoel Island project, this was not even included in the estimates for next year. Why?

Turning to the Park and Ride project, Mr Buhagiar said this project too was running behind schedule. The opposition's objections were principally over the Valletta parking scheme although it also objected that recent embellishment works at Blata l-Bajda now had to be dug up again, at considerable cost.

The scheme would not make it any easier for Valletta residents to find parking. Would those needing to go to the Floriana Home or Boffa Hospital have to pay for their parking?

There were some 6,000 parking spaces in Valletta and Floriana while the car park at Blata l-Bajda would have just 950 slots. Therefore the remaining motorists would henceforth have to pay for their parking in Valletta. The government would see its revenue rise by Lm2 million as a result.

The budget said nothing about the rebuilding of the old opera house. Decisions on this project were due to have been taken by October, but here again, deadlines were being missed and promises were not being kept.

Similarly, nothing was being done to rehabilitate Fort St Elmo, and there had been no comers at a call for tenders to reintroduce the Barrakka lift. The Schreiber Ground project had also dropped out, Mr Buhagiar said.

Earlier in his speech Mr Buhagiar said questions he asked last week during the debate on the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) had remained unanswered.

Would buses which were not being used on the routes continue to be subsidised? How could this be justified?

When would works on the Valletta bus terminus be resumed after having been stopped half-way through three years ago?

What was the ADT doing to stop the use of unlicensed white vans for the carriage of passengers?

Would fixed taxi termi be established at Sliema, Bugibba and Valletta as the taxi operators had suggested?

What was the ADT's Licensing and Testing Directorate doing to recover outstanding payments of Lm3 million?

Labour MP Stefan Buontempo said there were many projects which the Nationalist government promised but had not realised. What was to become of the White Rocks project and when would redevelopment of the Dock 1 area start?

He insisted that the government should give greater importance to the rehabilitation of village cores, and there should be better incentives for people to move into vacant dwellings especially around Grand Harbour. However, he did not agree with the Housing Authority scheme to buy vacant property for reallocation. How could the government be taken seriously when it was voting Lm3 million to buy 100 empty properties? This was the private sector's role. The Housing Authority's role was to encourage owners to put their property on the market. Unfortunately, efforts in this direction started by the Labour government were never followed up. At the same time, government projects, particularly at Cospicua, were causing property prices to rise, putting them out of reach for many people.

Mr Buontempo also complained that the revision of rent laws had still not materialised.

Joe Debono Grech (MLP) said the government was boasting about the recently completed new roads, yet the original Italian financial protocol which funded them was negotiated by a Labour government. The government had suddenly found the money to rebuild roads to be used by the Queen and the CHOGM leaders, yet Triq il-Ftih and Triq l-Ghabex in Birkirkara still resembled roads in Iraq.

The Nationalists had made many promises to the people, but hardly any were kept.

Government speakers in this debate will be reported tomorrow.