THE hundreds of millions of euros earmarked for a motorway linking Paphos to Polis could be better spent on building clinics or upgrading Paphos’ transit system, a former minister and one-time advocate of the project has said.
“Being a local resident of Argaka myself, I would very much welcome a modern road running outside my house,” DISY deputy and former Communications and Works Minister Averoff Neophytou told the Sunday Mail.
“On the other hand, if I were the Finance Minister, and I wanted to make the best possible use of public funds, I would channel them toward solving Paphos’ traffic problems,” he added.
It was under Neophytou’s watch as Communications Minister in 2001 that a decision was first taken for the motorway, which was seen as the culmination of a series of public projects designed to improve the island’s transit system.
“But that was then. Today, the [economic] circumstances are very different. Resources are limited.”
The Paphos deputy insisted, however, that much of the criticism levelled at the planned motorway was misguided.
“The €900 million that we’re hearing it will cost…this is nonsense, totally unrealistic. I have also heard the argument, why should all taxpayers foot the bill since only a tiny fraction of the population will benefit? But with this rationale, we should not have built the Larnaca-Ayia Napa highway either.”
Sources inside the Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) told the Sunday Mail last month that the road would shorten travel time to Polis by a mere eight minutes. And they estimated the tab would ultimately spiral to beyond €1 billion when you factor in state expropriation of private land.
But Alekos Michaelides, director of the Department of Public Works, says this is pure fantasy.
“Our figures indicate that the total cost will come to €275 million, which includes the cost of upkeep. The project has been assigned to a private consortium, using the DBFO [Design, Build, Finance and Operate] method over a 25-year period. That is to say, if the government were to directly finance the project today, its net present value would be some €200 million.”
This did not include the cost of land expropriations, he added.
Michaelides dismissed the notion that traffic from Paphos to Polis and vice versa did not justify a new motorway.
“Our studies indicate that the road is fast reaching its traffic capacity. Merely widening it, as some have suggested, won’t solve the problem.”
Under the plan, the road from Paphos to Stroumbi will feature four lanes; the rest of the distance (approximately half) will have only two.
“The benefits to the national economy are manifold,” Michaelides said.
“For one, motorists will spend less on fuel, not to mention car maintenance, since they will be driving in better conditions. Then there’s the question of accidents, injuries and loss of life, as the current road is considered to be dangerous. Research in Europe has shown that motorways are up to four times safer than two-lane roads.”
Michaelides was asked to comment on the findings of the Auditor-general, who in October 2005 said the internal return factor (IRR) was lower than four per cent, while according to the requirements of the International Bank the factor should be higher than 12 per cent, where financing of road projects was concerned.
Whereas these observations were accurate at the time, he said, the criteria are now outdated, having since been revised downwards. But he could not recall the exact IRR calculated for the road presently.
Michaelides said an environmental impact study had been carried out, and that the government had given it “serious consideration”. He could not say, however, whether the verdict was positive or negative.
“It’s precisely because we wanted to minimise the impact on the environment that we decided to build so many tunnels, flyovers and underpasses – to avoid changing the landscape as much as possible.”
The contract has been awarded to a consortium of companies that includes J&P Avax and Cybarco. The contractors are said to have secured financing from the banks, but negotiations with the government are still ongoing. Officially, the green light for construction to commence is expected around summertime, although conflicting reports about the date have been heard, some placing it towards the end of the year.
Money down the drain, say the sceptics.
“Whichever way you look at it, you can’t justify spending hundreds of millions on a project that isn’t vital,” said a source at ETEK speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Unlike other European countries – and we’re supposed to be part of the EU – there has been no dialogue with the public on a project that affects them. Why is that? It seems that in Cyprus we take it for granted that the government ‘always knows better’.
“The data speaks against the project, but this has been ignored. Bottom line, it’s a political decision…whenever you ask, the official explanation is that the road ‘is beneficial to society’.
“Certainly the present road is dangerous and tough to negotiate. Yet simply by widening it or adding shoulders for trucks, you’d achieve a similar result by spending far less,” the source said.
The Sunday Mail spoke also to a private engineer who back in 1996 carried out the first techno-economic study on the road. The engineer, who preferred not to be named, said that at the time the motorway was found to be “not economically viable”, although he did qualify that the specifications had since changed.
