Crossing between Malta and Gozo on a beautiful sunny day, looking down at the blue water and allowing any thoughts to drift away with the soft I breeze sounds charming. But when the journey is part of the daily routine to ferry between work and home, the charm vanishes into the deep sea and the thoughts focus on how a bridge or tunnel connecting the two islands would make life easier. Although the Gozitans had protested against the building of a bridge connecting the two islands when it was proposed by government in the early 1970s, today they seem to have warmed to the idea. Non-scientific polls have shown that more than half of the Maltese and Gozitan respondents believe a bridge should be built to connect the two islands.
Those in favour argue that without a bridge Gozo will remain undeveloped and that building a bridge would not only give the smaller island a tourism boost, but scrap unemployment among Gozitans once and for all. Others are resisting the idea, arguing that a bridge would ruin Gozo's beautiful characteristics and turn it into an extension of Malta. They are also concerned about the costs of building a bridge (which have never been quantified) and the potential negative impact on the marine environment. At the moment the islands are connected through a frequent ferry service. A helicopter service, which was privatised some time ago, stopped operations recently. But a seaplane between the two islands is expected to start operations shortly. The ten-minute flight will be operating between Grand Harbour and Mgarr in GOZO and the Canadian company operating the service is planning 13 daily flights. But will this be enough? It is still unclear how much the trip will cost and, unlike the ferry, motorists will not be able to take their car with them.
Maybe the only solution to ease travel between the two islands is to build a bridge. But whether the construction of the bridge will ever materialise does not appear to be on any politician's imminent agenda -it's probably too hot a topic.
Timeout