THE LEADERS of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities will on Monday attend the ceremony marking the beginning of the construction of Limnitis road in the buffer zone, officials said yesterday.
President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat will deliver short speeches marking the start of construction that will lead to the opening of a new crossing point linking the remote Pyrgos area to Nicosia, through the occupied areas.
The contracts for the project, which is co-funded by the EU, Cyprus and the US, were signed on Wednesday.
Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UNFICYP Chief of Mission Taye-Brook Zerihoun hailed the signing of the contract as “further tangible evidence that when there is a will, even what seem to be the most intractable problems can be solved”.
“Getting to today’s signing was far from easy”, he said. “But thanks to the perseverance and cooperation of the two sides, and particularly of the two leaders, as well as the untiring effort of many in the international community, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots — and all the people of Cyprus — are now taking one more determined step in their pursuit to remove obstacles to peace, reconciliation and prosperity in a reunited island”.
The venture will be undertaken by a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot company and is expected to be complete in four months.
Currently it takes residents of the Kato Pyrgos area over three hours to get to Nicosia due to the Turkish-occupation of the northern third of the island.
They have to have to travel to Paphos, and Limassol, in order to reach Nicosia.
Opening the Limnitis crossing will cut this journey down to under an hour.
The project consists of a 2.2km section of road located in the UN-controlled buffer zone and another section of about 4.5km located in the northern part of the island.
The opening of the Limnitis crossing has been on the agenda since checkpoints were first opened seven years ago next month. It was moved to the fore two years ago when the Ledra Street crossing became a reality but the plans ran into numerous difficulties, mainly relating to the state of the roads.
