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 Post subject: Paphos-Polis road:
PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:27 pm 
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a 1 billion euro scandal? Critics says road will shorten travelling time by a mere eight minutes

SERIOUS doubts are being raised over the nearly €900 million earmarked for the construction of a new road linking Paphos to Polis, the costliest public project on record.

Sources inside the Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) tell the Sunday Mail the road would shorten travel time to Polis by a mere eight minutes (and perhaps as few as five), and wonder whether good sense has flown out the window.

The sources, engineers who are members of ETEK and who spoke on condition of anonymity, estimate the tab will ultimately spiral to beyond €1 billion, since state expropriation of private land will cost an additional €100 million.

Needless to say, taxpayers will be picking up the tab.

By comparison, the Nicosia-Limassol highway, which is twice as long, cost around €100 million in present-day prices.

The same sources said that figures cited in a local paper last week estimating that each kilometre of road would cost €23 million were “pretty accurate”.

Former Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said the fundamental issue was the relationship of cost to benefit.

“It is not so much the figures in absolute terms, but rather, could we build something else with comparable amounts of money? It would seem the project is hard to justify,” he said.

Because the road will be cutting through hilly terrain and shrublands, it will require building nine flyovers, two tunnels, underground passes and bridges. That’s the main reason why the price tag is astronomical.

Negotiations are underway between the government and contractors, and the green light is expected to be given around springtime. The contractors have reportedly secured financing from the banks.

Defenders of the scheme argue that it will help curb urban depopulation and ease transit from Paphos to Polis, which at present is extremely cumbersome due to the meandering narrow road. It is also said that the €867 million covers also the cost of upkeep. And the Department of Public Works states that, according to its own calculations, it will shorten travel time by as much as 12 minutes.

Skeptics say it’s a lose-lose situation.

“The key question here is whether it’s cost-beneficial. There can only be one answer: No,” said one source.

“For one thing, tourists like to travel through picturesque countryside, look at the vines etc. So much for the ‘modernisation’ argument. Next, and this is the core question, how useful will the road be?

“In all frankness, I don’t think that enabling farmers to reach their fields eight minutes earlier really justifies the gigantic costs involved. And that’s putting it mildly,” the source said.

“The money could easily be used to improve the entire transit grid of Paphos. In a country with so many problems - water shortages, lack of energy infrastructure - you don’t go spending billions on one road. Not to mention the current economic conditions.

“You could achieve a similar outcome simply by improving the existing road. You don’t see other countries obliterating traditional roads just because they are impractical.”

The source pointed out that the road will end at the site of a planned golf resort at Limni. The master plan for the project, the contractors of which are the Shacolas Group, includes high-end residential villas as well as a boutique hotel and spa.

“Could it be a case of vested interests? Have you heard anyone from the political opposition complain? Let’s leave it at that. Excuse my French, but they’re going to screw the entire area for one road,” he told the Sunday Mail.

The necessary expropriations should not be underplayed, either, the source said: “There’s going to be a lot of angry folks out there.”

Auditor-general Chrystalla Yiorkadji, whose job is to monitor the utility of government expenditures, has also issued a damning verdict on the Paphos-Polis road.

In her report for 2006, Yiorkadji noted that initial plans to improve/upgrade the existing road were shelved in 2000, when it was decided to construct a new road under the method PPP (Public Private Partnership), whereby the private sector would study, construct, finance and upkeep the road, “as a result of the reactions raised by the agencies involved”.

According to the technical and financial study, the cost of the project was estimated at €124 million in prices of 1999, while this was increased to €255 million (in 2005 prices), “as a result of the very expensive constructions (junctions, large bridges and tunnels) and the additional works, which were subsequently decided, after political decisions.”

The Auditor-general goes on to say: “In my letter, addressed to the Ministers of Finance and Communications and Works, in October 2005, I observed that the Government decided for the construction of the above project, despite the fact that the financial and technical study has shown that 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, for the financing of the road projects.

“In my view the cost of the project should be reduced to reasonable levels, which may be effected only with the modification of the planning philosophy of the project, so that, the number and the type of expensive constructions (junctions, large bridges and tunnels) to be reduced, with the objective the internal return factor to be increased to 10 per cent, at least.”

She went on to cite the International Monetary Fund mission, which in March 2006 investigated the possible financial effects from the execution of the projects under the PPP method. The IMF said the decision for the construction of the road was taken "in an ad-hoc fashion", without taking into consideration the value for money of the project. It also said that “due to the absence of clear specifications from the part of Government, the consultants were allowed to specify an over-designed project.”


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 Post subject: Re: Paphos-Polis road:
PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:08 pm 
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JGG, there has always been a question mark against the wisdom of such a road. The current 'leak' is just the start of the process of downgrading the project to a mere widening of the current road. IMHO.

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 Post subject: Re: Paphos-Polis road:
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:44 pm 
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For me it should not be about saving money, it should be about saving lives. The road is dodgy to say the least, what with all the blind bends, coupled with the rush hour and Sunday suicide drivers, I for one would feel safer on a new road.

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 Post subject: Re: Paphos-Polis road:
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:12 pm 
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‘I would not build road now,’ says former minister


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.


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 Post subject: Re: Paphos-Polis road:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:54 am 
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According to LinTv news 7th Oct the road project is on again.

What a complete waste of money


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 Post subject: Re: Paphos-Polis road:
PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 12:00 pm 
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Location: Kallepia, Pafos.
Has anyone seen any recent updates on this project or the proposed replacement ones.

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