The Malta Transport Authority accused the opposition of having a hidden agenda through which to discredit its work.

It was referring to opposition criticism of road building, and specifically to the picture painted by opposition leader Alfred Sant about the Mtarfa by-pass.

Work on the by-pass was completed some months ago after some seven years of work, during which one of the carriageways was closed. Now, some damage has appeared along part of it and repairs should start next month, and take about four weeks.

The MTA said the small area where the damage has appeared was built between October and November of 1999, and investigations were started immediately. That small part had formed before the retaining wall was built to reinforce the road.

The Lm200,000 estimate for the road which the leader of the opposition had mentioned, it added, had not been the estimate for the whole road but for a short section of it. The global cost of Lm1.2 million was in fact very reasonable for the work done on the Mtarfa by-pass, which is 1.3kms long.

Contrary to what was done when the by-pass was built originally, the MTA said, it had built a retaining wall on the valley to reinforce the road. In some sections the wall was some 10 storeys high and it had cost more than half the final total cost of the bypass.