The long-term viability of a permanent link between Malta and Gozo was questioned by the Malta Archdiocese’s inter-diocesan commission on the environment, in a report which focused on the importance of sustainable development.
The commission observed that past experience and studies shed doubts on the benefits of certain huge infrastructural projects, adding that regrettably, such projects were often politicised, preventing an objective evaluation.
It recalled that a preliminary study on a Malta-Gozo tunnel by Mott MacDonald set the construction cost of a tunnel at €156-570 million, with annual maintenance costs of €4.5-6.1 million, and pointed out that the study itself suggested an improvement of the ferry service as an alternative.
The commission pointed out that a ferry service would have to be retained in any case for various reasons, including the transportation of dangerous cargo, and said that such alternatives should also be evaluated thoroughly.
In the report, it also expresses scepticism about the €4 million feasibility study that the state-owned China Communications Construction Corporation Ltd will carry out, free of charge, on a Malta-Gozo bridge. It said that it was unlikely that a study from a company which would favour the construction of such projects would be objective.
Furthermore, the commission added, even if such a bias was not present, such feasibility studies had to integrate all aspects, including social and environmental ones. A failure to do so, it said, would mean that the studies would be tied solely to whether the project would be profitable or not.
The Mott MacDonald study also looked into the increase in traffic that would take place over the years, and the commission insisted that the impact of such traffic should be studied properly to determine whether the road link between the two islands would be truly beneficial.
“Our islands can no longer suffer from decisions spurred solely by the fact that someone simply ‘thought’ that a link would have a positive impact,” the commission said.