New checkpoint in the next few days

By a Staff Reporter

WORK to re-open the Ayios Dometios checkpoint next to the racetrack in Nicosia is expected to be finished within the next couple days the UN said yesterday.

Municipality bulldozers were yesterday busy clearing the old Nicosia-Kyrenia road and prefabricated offices for police officers where placed at the entry points. It is hoped the new crossing will ease traffic congestion around the other checkpoints.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, UN spokeswoman Major Ingrid Tomekova said UNFICYP was hopeful that the checkpoint would be opened within the next couple of days.

“We are hopeful that the opening of the Ayios Dometios checkpoint will ease the traffic congestion,” she said.

“So far we’ve had no problems except trying to work out how to accommodate the flow of traffic to and from the north through the checkpoint.

Both sides agreed to open Ayios Dometios would be reopened while other checkpoints are also expected to be reopened in the near future.

The Ayios Dometios checkpoint will be opened for cars only. Pedestrians will still only be able to cross from the Ledra Palace checkpoint.

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.