Works on the first phase of the master plan for the new 121,000-square metre Mcast campus in Paola are to start in September, subject to approval by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, an Education Ministry official told The Sunday Times.

The €120 million project, led by the ministry's Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools, will encompass all Mcast's institutes currently dispersed in towns including Naxxar, Tarġa Gap, Bighi and Paola.

The new campus will extend from St Anthony's church in Paola to the Marsa waterfront and will be able to accommodate an additional 1,000 students for a total population of 6,300. It will also encompass 26,000 square metres of car parking space.

Sports facilities will be developed close to Gaddafi Gardens across the road, accessible through an underground tunnel.

Mepa has approved the project's outline development plan and the ministry has filed an application for approval of the full development plan. The official said the project was expected to be complete in three years after planning permission was granted.

Phase one includes the construction of four institutes. The EU has approved financial assistance for two: the new Institute of Applied Science and the Institute of Business and Commerce. Works will first see the demolition of the former St Joseph Secondary Technical School, the vacant building on the current campus next to St Anthony's church, which is already cordoned off.

The official said inconvenience to students of the Paola-based Institutes of Mechanical Engineering, Care, Business and Commerce, and IT should be minimal. The Art and Design, Building and Construction, and Maritime Institutes are located off campus.

Mcast currently accommodates 5,300 full-time and 4,000 part-time students. Intake grows by an average five per cent a year. Additional facilities on the planned campus will benefit the Institute of IT students in particular, which has had to second students to private service providers due to lack of space in recent years.