The new bus lane along Gzira seafront will feature bus-activated traffic lights which will stop vehicular traffic to enable the buses to proceed smoothly near the Manoel Island bridge where the bus lane and the lane for ordinary traffic will merge, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi said in Parliament this evening.

He was replying to parliamentary questions by Nationalist MP Censu Galea.

Last month, Mr Mizzi had explained that Transport Malta studies showed that the average number of cars using this road heading towards Valletta was 763 per hour at its peak while the average number of buses was 33 per hour. The monitoring was made between September 2014 and January 2015.

A single lane could handle up to 1300 cars per hour which meant that current demand, at 763 cars per hour, was only 59 per cent of maximum capacity.