The Infrastructure Minister has admitted that the Prom scheme will likely not meet its March 31 completion deadline.

Tim Baker told a Tynwald scrutiny committee that contractors Auldyn are still working to that March deadline.

But he added: ‘However, clearly there is a lot of work that needs to be done.’

He said a ’huge amount of progress’ had been made but this was not without challenges that have ‘pushed our deadlines and anticipated timescale backwards’.

He cited the delays with the gas main replacement at Broadway which will mean the road won’t now reopen until December.

Mr Baker said he didn’t have a precise new end date and did not want to guess.

The Minister said the March 31 deadline had been ‘ambitious’ and to deliver that had involved taking some items out of the scope of the original programme.

One of these was finishing the horse tramway on a single track running to the Sea Terminal.

Mr Baker said that with uncertainty over what the tourist season might look like next year, there may be an opportunity to bring some of this deferred work forward.