The government is committed to make Valletta more accessible and pedestrian-friendly and will also be launching the Vertical Connection Project in the coming weeks, Urban Development and Transport Minister Jesmond Mugliett said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of an exhibition on Valletta as a harbour hub, Minister Mugliett said that the government has launched the controlled Vehicular Access project and the pedestrianisation schemes, affecting crucial nodes in the Valletta fabric.
“My ministry’s intention is to embark on the extensions of the pedestrian areas immediately. These are also in line with the new modal transport systems being launched and the regeneration projects which are in the pipeline”.
He said that this vision is reflected in the work, research and development of the ministry, which in the past years has been involved in the inception and delivery of major road network projects, regeneration projects and transit orientated projects.
“In the past year, the ministry has spurred the publication of tenders for the provision of new sea ferry services to Valletta, the park and ride project and the electric taxi services inside Valletta. In the next few weeks we will also be launching the Vertical Connection Project. These initiatives are crucial building blocks for our City of Tomorrow”.
Minister Mugliett said that in particular, the proposed Vertical Connection will be a transit-orientated development project that will re-launch and rehabilitate a degenerated area and the historical assets in the vicinity through connectivity.
The funicular railway system and the lifts will integrate three different levels in the city with a park and ride component. The connection will make the city more permeable through the fusion of the waterfront, the land-front and Castille Place.
Minister Mugliett said that the city concept today goes beyond the limits which we are accustomed to or regulated by local council or physical boundaries. If we consider that the city is essentially the Greater Harbour Area which encapsulates the peninsula as its core, then the projects the ministry is delivering will in future transpose themselves as a unified hub with subsidiary nodes which are interconnected by a state-of-the-art road network and multi-modal systems which will see the ports as a means of connection and no longer a barrier, he explained.
“In this respect, the ministry has also given high priority to the regeneration of several nodes around the harbour area that will ensure a holistic and integrated regeneration process which will support the re-launch of the City of Valletta. We have thus been significantly spurring on the established projects of Manoel Island and Tignè, the Cruise Liner Terminal and Cottonera Waterfront”.
Concluding, Minister Mugliett said that such initiatives have developed further ancillary projects in the harbour area such as the regeneration of the Dock 1 area.