Over 10,000 square metres of virgin land to be lost

Over 10,000 square metres of agricultural land will be lost to widen Triq Buqana, in the limits of Rabat, but the government is insisting that some of it is required to save a line of trees near the Mtarfa roundabout. Nonetheless, a spokesman for Infrastructure Malta has acknowledged that the project will still mean uprooting 40 protected trees. It is pledging to make up for this loss by planting new ones. The spokesman was replying to questions from the Times of Malta on the project, part of a wide-ranging programme to upgrade major arterial roads to ease congestion. In July, Infrastructure Malta announced it had issued a call for tenders as part of a plan to add a lane for northbound traffic in Triq Buqana, saying this would reduce travel time by a third. This intervention will reverse the work carried out in 2004, when the road was reconstructed from scratch but narrowed to a single land in both directions. Furthermore, a 1.8km dedicated cycle lane will be introduced and the roundabouts at either end, one in the limits of Rabat leading to Mtarfa and the other on the outskirts of Mosta leading to Mġarr, are being redesigned. Despite the government’s intention to start the work...