Renovation plan for Eleftheria Square

By Athena Karsera

THE FACE of old Nicosia is set to change over the next years with Municipality plans to make the capital more picturesque.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mailyesterday, Nicosia mayor Lellos Demetriades said his Municipality had for several years been making plans for a face- lift in the Eleftheria Square area.

Because of a lack of available government funding, Demetriades said the Municipality had suggested that part of the area be leased long-term to a private company who would agree to remodel the area in accordance with government-approved Municipality plans.

“We have plans and once they have been approved by the government, we will ask for tenders for the work to be carried out.”

He said that basic plans for the area, costing millions of pounds, included creating an underground car-park in the moat area next to Eleftheria Square.

Plans also included a greater pedestrian area that would be promoted as a meeting place for Nicosia residents.

“A restaurant or cafeteria will be created under the arch (beneath Eleftheria square) and there will be wide steps going down from the road,” he said.

The sixteenth century Venetian walls surrounding Nicosia would also be maintained, he added.

Demetriades said he hoped work would begin before the end of his current term in office on January 31, 2001. “Once it has started it will not be interrupted,” he said.

Other plans for the area include making the moat a popular venue for events and open exhibitions and for the Pallas adult cinema to be renovated.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.