Filenews 6 May 2021
The Municipality of Paphos becomes the first Local Authority of Cyprus to proceed with the holistic implementation of a smart system of management of parking spaces and parking spaces throughout the city and takes another essential step for its development into Smart City.
In the morning, mayor Phaedon Phaedon signed with the contractor INNTENET LTD the contract for the Procurement, Installation and Maintenance of Smart Parking Management System, totalling €916,300. The project will have a duration of 7 months for its procurement, installation and operation and 8 years for its maintenance.
It is implemented in full coordination with the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy and has been selected for funding from the European Funds.
Speaking at the signing, Mr. Phaedon noted that this is the first major project to transform Paphos into a smart city, with a substantial impact on the daily life of the citizen and said that at least 20 other similar projects are being followed, some of which have already begun to be implemented. He called on citizens and the business world to embrace and broaden the effort of the Local Authority both for their own benefit and for the benefit of society as a whole.
He pointed out that Paphos is the first city to make a holistic solution for the implementation of smart parking and welcomed the fact that the small Municipality of Paphos, after a hard effort and without previous experience, managed to "mature" the project and prepare the documents of the Competition, which can now be used by the other Municipalities.
The project involves managing 3,300 parking spaces in organized spaces and parks using sensors in each location. There will be a mobile phone app through which the public will be informed about the available parking spaces at their points of interest, as well as the payment of parking fees. Private parking spaces will also be able to be integrated into the digital platform, as long as they are converted by their owners into smart spaces by installing the required sensors, thus creating an additional benefit in the context of the modern practice of Shared Economy.
The implementation of the smart system will bring many great benefits, such as reducing unnecessary vehicle movements, facilitating the movement of citizens and visitors to the city, paying a fee for exactly as long as parking takes and reducing pollutants.
The signing of the contract was also attended by the Deputy Mayor of Paphos Christos Makarios, the President of the EBE Paphos Giorgos Mais, the Director of the EVE Marinos Stylianou, the President of POVEK Paphos Andreas Evripidou and the responsible officers of the Municipality of Paphos.
