Malta might get its first crematorium after a private company applied to build a cemetery of 1,000 graves and a cremation facility in an area between Rabat and Attard.

The development, on a site of around 17,000 square metres, outside development zones, would help ease the problem of pending grave applications, according to a project description statement, commissioned by the developer.

Filed by Luqa Developments Ltd, the cemetery would be built on Mdina Road to serve Attard and Rabat. Neither council objects.

The report said the population in the two towns had risen significantly but the number of graves in local cemeteries remained the same and these were impossible to expand because they were located in a residential area.

The cemetery will offer common and private burial spaces, a crematorium, a chapel, large open paved areas to allow people to walk, parking spaces and hard and soft landscaped areas.

In Malta there are more than 26,500 graves – 23,262 of which are private. There are more than 6,000 pending applications for private graves and people are put on the waiting list according to the cemetery of their choice. At least 15 per cent or 870 of these are for the Attard and Rabat cemeteries, according to the report.

Building a cemetery there would decrease pressure on the Government to increase the number of available private graves.

The proposed development could also provide graves to residents of Qormi, Mosta, Birkirkara, Lija and Balzan, making space for another 960 pending applications.

The site has a potential for 11,000 burials in a span of 20 years, according to the application. This figure was calculated on a Public Health Department policy stating that 25 per cent of new graves must be designated as common graves and on the assumption that each private grave would be used twice in 20 years.

The public will be able to visit and “appreciate the visual environment” as the site would be upgraded from an “unused, bare dump to a highly landscaped, utilised space”.

It would be the “first cemetery that will utilise cremation methods rather than the traditional burial methods to make a more efficient use of land”.

It would also be the first to be run through a condominium where site maintenance would be taken care of through a common fund.

The cemetery, which would take 18 months to build, would also provide parking, energy saving measures and would not have a negative impact on the environment.