Shiny new Solomou Square lit by old lights

 

Those with a discerning eye visiting Nicosia’s renovated Solomou Square bus terminal when it officially opens in October might realise that not everything there is shiny and new: the lights will come from old stock.

Nicosia Municipality will not be able to draw upon its €235,000 budget to supply new lights for the square because of a pending tender appeal which the Tenders Review Authority (TRA) will consider on July 5.

One of the companies placing a tender to supply the square’s lighting appealed in writing against the municipality’s procedure on March 23.

The municipality responded in early May but then asked for more time to compile their case. The appealers likewise asked for more time before submitting their case which further delayed the review date, TRA’s general secretary, Sophocles Ioulianou said yesterday.

The TRA has 45 days to review the case in full and draw up a decision but regardless of its result, “there will be no time to set up new lighting,” Nicosia Municipality architect Marina Tymviou told the Cyprus Mail.

“There is no other alternative,” Tymviou said “but to use existing property coming from the Electricity Authority of Cyprus.”

The best-case scenario for the municipality is for the TRA to overrule the appeal or suggest amendments to the tender procedure.

If so, they can proceed normally with accepting the best offer from a company who will supply the square’s lighting.

If the TRA suggests major changes to the terms of the request for tenders, then the municipality would have to start again by putting out a new request for tenders.

This happened before when the TRA postponed the whole affair in December 7 last year after an appeal arguing that the request for tenders was misleadingly classified as “works.”

 

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.