Eight months to build the gas power station is “a tight deadline” but much depends on how the project is structured, according to a former Enemalta chairman.

The government had promised the power station would be delivered within two years of winning the election, targeting March 2015..

Robert Ghirlando, an engineer, said the time frames were optimistic.

“Apart from the civil works on site there are also steel works, but everything depends on whether the power station will come in prefabricated modules that would simply be positioned on site,” Prof. Ghirlando said.

His views were shared by Michael Falzon, an architect and former minister responsible for the construction of the Delimara power station in the 1990s.

“I always thought two years was not a feasible target... but one has to keep in mind that the project is not Enemalta’s, which means a lot of bureaucracy can be cut,” Mr Falzon said.

He also noted that the inclusion of Siemens in the consortium meant the equipment was being built by the company itself, which could save on time.

A spokesman for Gasol, the lead company in the consortium that will build and run the power station, told this newspaper last month the timeline was “unchanged and remained feasible”.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi last week said works on the site had started with the company drilling holes as part of preparations for the foundations.