Four bids were received by Malta Government on June 4, when the first phase of the tender process for Malta-Gozo tunnel PPP project closed last week.

The project involves the design, build, finance, operate, maintain and transfer of a 13km long Malta-Gozo (partly sub-sea) tunnel. It is planned that the tunnel will have three lanes. The tunnel will bypass Xemxija and Mellieha where significant bottlenecks in traffic are created at the moment.

The bids were submitted by two companies and two consortiums. The companies come from Italy, Turkey, China, Japan and Netherlands and are major companies in the infrastructural development sector.

The interested companies are:

• Salini Impregilo S.p. A.,
• CGYI Malta Gozo Consortium,
• Equitix – Itochu – Yapi Merkezi – Makyol – Egis Consortium
• Malta Gozo Fixed Link Limited.

Infrastructure Malta has issued the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for the project in January. The original deadline was on April 9, which was later extended to June 4. This is the first phase of the tendering process for the tunnel. Now the Department of Contracts will evaluate and decide if the interested bidders qualify. Those who do will move onto the second phase of the tender process - a competitive dialogue.

The project will be completely financed by the private partner, who will recover the costs of building the tunnel over the length of the concession through a toll system.

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg noted that the tender will include the clause that the waste generated during the project will remain the government´s property.

The bidding process was transparent and public, the names of the bidders will be announced at every stage of the process.