Road link to SmartCity to use 80% less private land, Abela says

Prime Minister Robert Abela has declared that the area of land to be expropriated for a new road link to SmartCity is to be reduced by 80%.

Abela made the announcement yesterday, while inaugurating the newly-built Shoreline Mall at Kalkara’s SmartCity. The new mall, which came into being as a result of a €200 million investment from the private sector, features entertainment areas and play spaces intended for families with young children, as well as retail outlets.

Before the official inauguration ceremony, Abela thanked the project’s investors for “creating an environment where families could spend quality time” and was taken on a tour of the complex, where he met with workers and families. 

The Prime Minister said that the government was investing in “bringing SmartCity to life,” pointing to the government’s plans to build a new campus for the Institute for Tourism Studies there.

Saying that the Government “had understood the need for strengthening the road infrastructure leading to SmartCity, whilst also protecting the environment” he announced a two thirds reduction in the area of privately-owned land that would have had to be expropriated in the original plans proposed for this purpose in 2013.

The revised plan would mean 80% less private land, much of it farmland, would need to be expropriated, he said.

Abela hailed the investment in SmartCity as a “show of faith in our country” and pledged that his government would continue to help bring certainty and stability. Investments in the South of Malta showed that the region “also attracted families towards it,” he said.