THE operation and maintenance of Northern Ireland's motorways may be privatised as part of a plan to encourage companies to bid for the construction of the Westlink fly over in Belfast.

It was announced earlier this year by Northern Ireland Transport Minister, Mr Malcolm Moss, that the construction of the £25 million flyover would take place under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

But it has since emerged that this would not be viable unless other road service contracts were included in the deal.

A British government expert on PFI, Mr Douglas Hogg, told a conference in Belfast that the initiative was of no use to projects involving mainly capital expenditure. There had to be a substantial proportion of operating costs to make it work.

The Westlink proposal does not include a significant pro portion of, operating costs because the amount of maintenance required on such a short stretch of road was negligible compared to the cost of building the flyover.

Mr Hogg said that the absence of service provisions in any PFI contract meant the public sector had merely borrowed the money by other means and thus had not made any real savings.

The aim, he said, should be to put together a package which was attractive to private investors and which would also provide substantial savings in public expenditure.

It is now mandatory under the Private Finance Initiative that the involvement of the private sector should be considered in all new public service projects.

In addition to the Westlink flyover, other Northern Ireland projects to which this would apply include the car park development at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital and a new renal dialysis unit at the City Hospital.