Filenews 11 September 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
In a few months Paphos will be a completely new city. More modern, more functional, more "smart" and clearly more attractive to its residents and visitors. In the meantime, however, everyday life in its centre is more like an "Odyssey", testing the nerves of citizens and visitors on a daily basis.
"There is nothing wrong with pure good", is the answer of the competent authorities, considering projects of this scale impossible to carry out without suffering to the people. An axiom which, although recognized by the majority of citizens who have already shown great patience, hardly appeases the increased discontent that has been recorded lately.
Dissatisfaction that has to do mainly with the psychological factor, representatives of the affected shopkeepers of the centre observe. And this, they explain, since where a road is given to traffic, raising expectations that we are coming to an end, comes almost at the same time a new closure of another road axis and works that give rise to new inconveniences in other parts of the central fabric of the city.
A walk (with obstacles) in Paphos of today, is enough for the traveller to realize the magnitude of the suffering experienced by the man of the city today, but also of the significant functional and above all aesthetic upgrade that he will enjoy tomorrow, when today's "daily madness" in the streets is completed.
The first road artery from which the huge-scale project of the total redevelopment of the city began, is Ellados Avenue. The current picture of this main road and commercial axis is divided into two parts: The first, in the northern part, by the exit to Mesogi, has been given to traffic for a few days now, giving a sample of the upgrade that will occur when the works are completed.
Comfortable lanes of traffic, many parking spaces along the road, modern pedestrian and bicycle paths and landscaping that constitutes an aesthetic improvement, are the image that the person entering Ellados Avenue today sees to go to the city centre.
However, after the motorist also uses the new roundabout that has been created and given for use at the height of the Municipal Park of Dasoudi, a few hundred metres below, comes the first "cold-bloodedness": In the southernmost part of the avenue, towards Evagoras Pallikaridis Avenue, the works are in full development, creating a gloomy landscape of everyday life, especially given that this is where the vast majority of businesses in the area are located. Although traffic is given one stream for even partial service of traffic, the whole picture is nightmarish for traders and commuters. The passage of vehicles and pedestrians is done in the midst of work by heavy machinery, the cement blocks in the middle of the road barely allow the passage of vehicles, the dividing railings along the houses and private properties further reduce the usable space and in general the use of the second half of Ellados Avenue is in fact a "challenge" for the citizens.
The same situation has prevailed since last week in most of Ellados Avenue's natural continuity, Evagoras Pallikaridis Avenue, which leads to the central Kennedy Square. From the traffic lights at the junction of the two avenues to the height of the oil stations, the traffic in Evagoras Pallikaridi is done only in one stream and by channelling traffic to lanes, magnifying the traffic problem in many other areas that are not structured in a way that can serve such traffic load.
With the main road connection of the centre of Paphos with the tourist area, Gladstonos Street, now also closed due to works, the situation on the road is nightmarish for areas such as the traditional shopping centre, the roads of the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Mouttalos leading to the western peri-urban communities and roads leading to commercial areas where no works are being carried out, such as Eleftheriou Venizelou Avenue and the area of the Technical School.
Evil "tritonizes" for the citizens and visitors on the equally central road axis of Griva Digeni. On the boulevard that leads from the eastern entrance of Pafos to its historic centre, the works have been completed in a small part of the Monument of Makarios and Resistance until after the Archaeological Museum. The rest of the area, which leads to Kennedy Square, is still closed, with traffic flowing in this case to the parallel Neophytou Nikolaidis Avenue, pushing its traffic problem to heights unusual for the city's measures.
The road artery, which has now been completed in its modern form and function and has been given in its entirety for use by the public, is Neophytou Nikolaidis. The avenue, which also starts from the Makarios and Resistance Monument and ends at the traffic lights on Evagoras Pallikarides Avenue, at the height of the Bank of Cyprus mansion, has now been "relieved" of the redevelopment and modernization works, but not of the traffic jam caused by the still closed parts of its neighbouring traffic axes.
The redevelopment of the nodal road and commercial axis will cost €8.8 million.
The big bet of the municipal authority is the fastest and most "painless" completion of the works on Ellados and Evagoras Pallikaridis Avenues, two of the most important road and commercial axes of the city. Especially for Ellados Avenue, the processes for the projects that are currently in full swing have lasted for years and caused repeated changes of plans, data readjustment, and even protest marches of businessmen along it.
The redevelopment of this key road and commercial axis of Pafos will cost €8.8 million, after procedures agreed in order not to waste valuable time with the re-announcement of the bids, since the initial bids submitted were far outside what was budgeted by the competent authorities.
Speaking to "F", the Municipal Councillor of Paphos of EDEK, Panagiotis Vorkas, stressed the importance of those moves, since as he pointed out the project is expected to contribute substantially to the enhancement of commercialism in the area, as well as to the aesthetic and functional upgrade of the city.
"As part of its execution, it is planned to create on the boulevard more than 250 parking spaces, build safe sidewalks, underground cables of all services, tree planting along the road, build a bike path and more," he said. "The construction works, as the citizens have been seeing for months, extend to the entire width of Ellados Avenue and part of Evagoras Pallikaridis Avenue, while the terms of the Tender included provisions to facilitate traffic during the works. The contractor also has the obligation to ensure access to the dwellings and business premises."
The project monopolized the interest in Paphos for some time due to the intense controversy that was recorded as to whether it would provide for the construction of a traffic island. From the outset, traders and neighboirs were strongly opposed to this possibility, while both the competent state services and the Municipality of Paphos favoured its construction. However, the constant mobilizations and representations of the local community eventually pushed the scholars to remove the islet from the planning.
Indicative of the importance attributed to the redevelopment of Ellados Avenue is the fact that a new body was created specifically for monitoring its redevelopment works. This is the Coordinating Committee of Ellados Avenue (SELE), which after initially "lifting" the mobilizations for the non-creation of a dividing island, then constantly intervened in matters of coordination and management of the major project.
Representatives of SELE point out today to "F" that it is understandable that in projects of this size and scale the inconvenience for businesses cannot be avoided. The important thing, however, they stressed, is to reduce this period of inconvenience as much as possible and to enable businesses to operate under the best possible conditions. "This for a long time was not done," they said. "Lately, however, projects seem to be progressing at a faster pace, which gives us optimism that we will soon be able to return to normality.
What could be done to avoid all this unprecedented inconvenience, would be to make a different project start planning. All the works on all the main roads were wrongly started at the same time. It should be expected that they would create a traffic infarction. However, let us be aware of the need for improvement interventions and we hope that the pace of the projects will now continue in such a way as to reduce this period of suffering as much as possible. Let's not forget one of the most important consequences of the projects, which is the closure of a few companies on Ellados Avenue, which have not been able to afford all this time of the annihilation of commercial
Terror from the opening of schools
The great fear of the businesses and citizens of Pafos regarding the development of the major projects that are being carried out at the same time, comes from tomorrow: The opening of schools after the summer holidays is treated by many with "terror" in Paphos due to the traffic burden it will bring to the entire municipal area.
"If under conditions of normal movement the situation was particularly difficult at the time when the schools were opening," shopkeepers said, "think about what we will see from Monday in the conditions of the closure of essentially the main roads of the city centre. There is no possibility of movement to and from Kato Paphos, there is no possibility of movement from the north entrance to the centre, there is no possibility from the eastern entrance of the city to reach the historic centre which has five or six schools. Think about what will happen on the streets every morning and every noon."
