Stopping major construction projects was “not an option”, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning

Reacting to a call by Marlene Farrugia for a moratorium until a masterplan is drawn up, the prime minister said today: 

“It is not an option for the country to just stop. While we as a government agree that there should be limitation on projects outside of the development zone, others within the DZ need to keep going,” he said.

Dr Muscat said there was a strong argument against “sprawl of buildings”. To avoid that “we need to go higher”, he said.

Turning to major projects planned for the St George’s Bay area, Dr Muscat acknowledged that among the main concerns was that the infrastructure would not keep up with the extra traffic the development would generate.

“The answer isn’t to stop development. Infrastructure decays naturally, with or without development. The road network is not strong enough. But, the onus on government to improve the infrastructure there needs to be increased,” he said.