Virtu Ferries applies for licence to operate Gozo-Malta fast ferry service
Photo: Miguela Xuereb
Virtu Ferries has announced that it has applied for a licence to operate a fast ferry service between Malta and Gozo, as it welcomed the government’s announcement that it will be liberalised.
In February, Transport Minister Ian Borg and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri jointly announced that operators will be able to provide direct fast ferry service between Mġarr in Gozo and Valletta. The traveling time between the two islands is just under 45 minutes.
According to Virtu Ferries, the feedback from the transport authority was ‘positive’ and ‘encouraging’.
Funds to support cultural activities on Gozo have increased three-fold to €750,000, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference, Camilleri said the funding to help support cultural events on the sister island had been bolstered particularly because organising such activities during the COVID-19 pandemic was proving to be far costlier than in previous years.
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“We are showing that for this administration, supporting cultural activities is a priority,” Camilleri said.
John Xuereb, the director of national heritage within the Gozo Ministry, told reporters that voluntary organisations, independent individuals and groups, as well as local councils and other local organisations, were all eligible for funding as long as their activity was set to be held this year.
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25 kilometres of rubble walls and 12 valleys will be restored through a €10 million European funds investment.
The Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds Stefan Zrinzo and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri made the announcement on Wednesday while visiting one of the restoration sites in Triq L-Ghadira, Kercem.
The project, funded through the European Agricultural Fund Rural Development and aided by the eco-Gozo directorate, is tasked with reconstructing 4.5 kilometres of rubble wall which reach a height of over five meters.
The Gozo minister said the project, which is of national importance, aims to transform Malta’s sister island into an ecological landscape.
The project, he said, will prevent soil loss through rain, while leading to better water management.
Two ministers with opposing views on hunting are “collaborating” after conversationists asked a court to decide who should be able to pull the trigger on major decisions.
Government sources told Times of Malta that Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia, a self-styled conservationist, and Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, a registered bird trapper, were working together on overseeing Malta’s controversial hunting community, with the two jointly nominating members to the government’s expert consultative body.
The Ornis committee gives the government advice on how to handle hunting related legislation and on the timing and format of the hunting and trapping seasons.
The body, however, has been largely defunct ever since conservationist group BirdLife filed a court protest last year insisting it was Farrugia who should be responsible for nominating the group not Camilleri.
A windmill in Xewkija has been restored after years of neglect, in a €500,000 project.
The windmill, which dates back to the 1700s, has been fitted with new electricity, plumbing and sanitary facilities as well as historic items related to its former function. With the help of restoration experts including Heritage Malta, machinery inside the windmill was rebuilt. Preexisting machinery had been burnt in a fire in the 1920s.
A large part of the €500,000 renovation costs were financed through EU funds, the Gozo Ministry said in a statement.
The windmill, which is now open to the public free of charge, will be used to host traditional folklore events as well as seminars and talks, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri said.