Updated - Replaces picture with new design of the Barrakka lift.

The Mepa board has unanimously given the thumbs-up for the rebuilding of the Barrakka Lift, 40 years after the former lift closed down.

The project is to be handled by the government through the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation, after it found bids for the project to be unsatisfactory.

The old Barrakka Lift was operated between 1905 and 1970 by the same company which operated the tram. The structure was dismantled in 1983.

The €2 million project will feature a panoramic lift with two cabins that will carry up to 800 passengers an hour from the area of the old Customs House to the Barrakka. The structure will be made out of concrete covered with a honey-coloured aluminium mesh - replacing another design which was seen as not being in keeping with its surroundings.

The government is insisting that the project is needed in order to improve connections with the cruise liner terminal and so that it can introduce a ferry service across Grand Harbour, reducing transport pressure on the capital.

During this morning's Mepa meeting, board members were told that the project will include the demolition of NSO offices in the ditch below and embellishment of the ditch. The lift structure will be detached from the bastion other than the passenger bridge on the Upper Barrakka.

During the meeting, Astrid Vella, coordinator of the FAA, complained that the new plans were not accessible on-line or at the Mepa offices, and the necessary public consultation as required by law had, therefore, not taken place.

A Planning Directorate official said that the development application was available on-line since May 2008 and the new plans were available since August this year.