The Church’s inter-diocesan commission on the environment said today that a detailed study needs to be carried out on the proposed building of a bridge between Malta and Gozo, including the initial outlay, the maintenance costs and the social and economic impact of the project.

In a long statement, the commission said data presented in the report by Mott MacDonald suggested that a revaluation needed to be made of the ferry service and transport services to the ferry ports.

It appeared that the wisest course of action was to improve the existing infrastructure to make it sustainable. That included a faster ferry service using different ferries according to need, an improved public transport and intelligent traffic management on the TEN-T road network to Cirkewwa and Mgarr.

The commission also argued that proper studies should have been carried out before the government issued its calls for expression of interest for land reclamation and the building of a ferry terminal in Gozo.

The call for expressions of interest for the ferry terminal should have been issued after studies to establish where such a terminal could be sited, Gozo’s needs for such a terminal, whether this sort of tourism was beneficial for Gozo and what alternatives to a terminal building could have been offered.

Similarly, no proper updated studies had been made on land reclamation and, particularly, where this could take place.

See the report by clicking the pdf link below.