Floriana's underground MCP car park is finally capped by a garden

The site of the MCP car park in Floriana was first granted on lease in 1991 with original plans catering for an underground car park capped by a garden at road level.

But for many years the car park was just a deep hole providing much needed parking spaces outside Valletta.

Now, three decades after the first lease was granted, the promise of building a garden on top of the facility has finally materialised.

The garden is part of a €10 million investment that saw the operators add 400 new car park spaces on six underground levels, introduce new charging point facilities for electrical vehicles, bicycle spaces, paving, recreational benches, and a pedestrian bridge.

A number of indigenous trees were planted in the garden, which is a public open space.

The extension of this project took place after a new lease agreement was reached with the government in 2012 that made it conditional on the developers to develop the garden at road level.

Visiting the project this morning, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg said the investment will help in attracting more people to the capital city.

“Such an investment goes hand in hand with the government’s efforts to invest in public transport for more efficient connections, incentives towards cleaner means of transport like electric cars, and other infrastructural work that not only improves road safety and efficiency but which also considers aesthetic aspects of places like our capital city,” Borg said.