Traffic cameras plans stuck over tenders

THE Communications Ministry is still nowhere near finalising a deal to bring traffic cameras to Cyprus, despite a lengthy meeting by the tenders council yesterday.

The meeting was held to discuss the most recent of five bids that have been made to install the system. The aim was to conclude on an offer or reject all four, if they were considered insufficient.

However, Communications Minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis told the Cyprus Mail that no final decisions have been made as yet.

“Nothing has been finalised. Any new developments will be announced, but the process is still ongoing,” said Marcoullis.

According to a report by Phileleftheros newspaper yesterday, a technical committee appointed to examine the five tenders said they were all insufficient and didn’t fulfil the technical requirements, and should therefore be rejected. The Tenders Council was yesterday expected to decide if this was going to be the case.

If this procedure fails, it will be the fourth in a row. A pilot system installed back in 2008 proved beneficial for a while, in reducing the number of road accidents and traffic violations, but the government halted the contract, saying there had been a violation of terms and conditions. The case is still pending in court, with the company in question seeking millions from the state.

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.