Kappara fly-over to be operational by September - Muscat

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced this morning that the Kappara fly-over will be operational by the end of September, in time for the start of the scholastic year. 

Muscat was speaking at a visit to the site of ongoing works on the project where he praised the coordination by all those involved, adding that anyone passing through the junction could see that work was “being carried out in a completely new way”.

“The project had been put off for many years and one of the reasons I was always given for this was that starting it would bring half the country to a standstill. Nobody had the courage to start it,” he said. “In reality we have had people telling us that traffic in the area has taken a turn for the better.”

The embattled Prime Minister was accompanied by transport minister Joe Mizzi, Transport Malta CEO James Piscopo, tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis, parliamentary secretary for EU funds Ian Borg, as well as a large delegation of officials involved in the project.

Muscat said that in addition to better traffic flow, the project would also make it easier to service the “cables that connect the country” that pass through the area.

He said that previously, any work would have required the closure of the road, and that as part of the project, the cables have now been placed in separate service duct.  

The visit comes a day after Aaron Bugeja, the magistrate leading the Egrant inquiry, wrote to Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil, informing him that following Busuttil’s testimony, he had concluded that there were grounds for a separate inquiry to be initiated into the dealings by OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and Nexia BT managing partner Brian Tonna.

Busuttil had alleged that Schembri had received kick-backs from Tonna for the sale of Maltese citizenship, an allegation he denies.

Muscat has said that he believes Schembri’s version of events and would ask him to resign if criminal proceedings are initiated.