Immersed Gozo tunnel ‘would cater for a monorail’

A consortium lobbying for an “immersed tunnel” on the seabed between Malta and Gozo claims its proposal is the best solution as it would leave open the option to introduce a monorail system later.

It also believes that the government’s proposal to excavate a tunnel under the seabed would probably be costlier and would not offer such flexibility.

These arguments were made by a spokesman for the Malta Gozo Fixed Link Consortium in an interview with the Times of Malta.

Based on the principle of laying prefabricated concrete tunnel parts, which would be joined underwater, the project came to the fore last month when the consortium uploaded a short video presentation on the internet. Though it stoked debate, it also raised many questions on its viability.

Spearheaded by Luke Chetcuti, the son of the late Paceville magnate Hugo Chetcuti, who originally came up with the proposal about two years ago, the consortium is still “in formation”. The spokesman declined to name the other investors saying it would be “premature at this stage” but he did say that a letter of intent had been signed with an undisclosed foreign financier – “a huge financial company involved in the insurance...