Paving slabs in Valletta’s Melita Street look stained, uneven and tired less than two months after the completion of a €160,000 repaving project.

Originally meant to have been completed by August 2011, the stretch of road linking Merchants Street and Battery Street was repaved over the summer.

But the completed works – replete with unchanged, shattered pavements – have left many pedestrians feeling distinctly underwhelmed. “Looking at that pavement reminds me of the Velvet Underground,” one British tourist quipped.

“Hey, baby, take a walk on the wild side.”

The Transport Ministry took more than two weeks to reply to questions by The Times about Valletta repaving projects, only to then refer questions to Transport Malta.

The transport authority then passed on copies of Valletta repaving tenders to The Times.

A ministry spokesman also did not reply when asked whether the ministry was satisfied with the final outcome of the Melita Street repaving works.

Tourists scurrying up and down the street were much less coy about sharing their views.

A Canadian couple visiting Malta on a cruise refused to believe the paving was just a few weeks old.

“Impossible. It looks like it was laid at least four or five years ago,” Frank McIntyre, 45, said. His wife Linda agreed. “How could it be less than 10 weeks old? Just look at it, it’s covered in oil stains,” she exclaimed.

One man, on his second visit to Malta, insisted that the “shoddy” work ought to be redone.

“Back home, the Government would get those responsible to start all over again and then blacklist them from applying for public tenders for a year,” he said.

According to the tender, workers were to “carefully remove existing pavement flagstones... for later reuse and relaying”.

That does not appear to have happened and tourists’ most disparaging comments were reserved for the street’s crumbling pavements.

“They’re a complete safety hazard. Perhaps they could have just paved over the whole lot while they were at it,” was one Italian woman’s suggestion.

A Spanish couple described the pavement as “embarrassing” and a Brit was even less equivocal.

“They’re an absolute disgrace,” he said to nods from his wife.

But while tourists chortled at the state of the freshly paved road and accompanying pavement, many Maltese commuters seemed nonplussed about the state of the street.

“Well, it’s better than it was before, At least the potholes are gone,” one man said.

“The road seems nice to me, although they could have done something about those pavements,” another added.

An elderly man walking towards Republic Street took it philosophically.

“It’s a start,” he sighed.

The Transport Malta architect responsible for the works, Gordon Zammit, is in the dock on fraud charges. Prosecutors allege that Mr Zammit pocketed nearly €93,000 by inflating roadworks contracts.

Finding out who was the contractor responsible for the repaving works proved harder than expected, with the tender document handed to The Times missing a crucial page naming the company responsible.

Subsequent clarification questions to Transport Malta went unanswered.