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STAFF REPORTER A MAJOR engineering project bringing a gas supply over from the mainland to the Balearics will arrive at its first port of call on Ibiza at the end of this month.

Regional Minister for Industry and Energy, Francesca Vives, acknowledged yesterday on Ibiza that the project was behind schedule as the pipeline link-up on Ibiza had been planned for the end of August. She insisted however, that the pace of work would step up in order to meet its original deadline and that the gas supply could be expected on Majorca before the end of October.

Vives said that not everything is going to happen at once - central distribution stations have to be set up and then pipeline networks to key points around the islands have to be built. She said that the overall project is costing 500 million euros and is the most important to have been built in the islands.

The Minister also said yesterday that she hoped that the Balearic government could agree later this year on the European Union-driven Bolkestein directive which sets minimum sizing for commercial centres, department stores and hypermarkets. The sizing will vary according to the size of the individual Balearic islands and new structures must be built on land that has already been set aside for urban use.