(Adds ministry statement)

It was the responsibility of Transport Minister Austin Gatt to ensure that the necessary infrastructural works were planned so as not to create chaos and congestion, the Labour Party said.

It said in a statement that works on two arterial roads which led to the same junctions should not be carried out simultaneously. (Works are currently being carried out on Garibaldi Road, Luqa and Council of Europe, Road, also in Luqa.)

Had the works been carried out at different times, these routes would have been used for the diversions.

The PL said that the diversion routes implemented were not adequate for the traffic that used them. This was the result of a lack of studies on the traffic impact on these diversion routes.

Traffic congestion meant fuel wastage and other high bills for drivers, a lack of production work for those caught in traffic and more pollution.

These were effects the country was unable to shoulder.

In a reply, the Infrastructure Ministry said that the chief architect of the works in Garibaldi and Council of Europe Roads was Labour MP Charles Bugahiar. He was also responsible for traffic management.

The opposition was realising that major projects were taking place in the roads and to mitigate from the positive of these initiatives, it exploited the inconvenience caused by road construction.

Four arterial roads were being rebuilt from scratch and these were costing around €40 million. They were, in their majority, financed by the European Union and work on them had been ongoing for at least six months with traffic passing through diversion routes throughout this time.

Although the deviation routes mitigated the inconvenience, they did not remove it completely, the ministry said.