The government will move ahead with what was agreed for the Larnaca port and marina, Transport and Works Minister Alexis Vafeades said on Monday, while dismissing suggestions that there has been any reference to the creation of an industrial port.
“I don’t understand why this is being said,” he noted, adding that during a meeting on 16 April with the mayor of Larnaca, the chair of the Larnaca District Local Government Organisation and the chair of the Larnaca Chamber of Commerce and Industry, all parties had agreed on the next steps, the timing of the next contact, when measures for the land-side facilities would be announced and when the studies would be submitted.
Vafeades said that there was also agreement at the time that the issue should not form part of the pre-election debate currently under way. “Why this has now changed, I do not understand,” he said, clearly implying that the reactions from Larnaca stem from pre-election considerations.
At the same time, the transport minister said the government would continue to work “steadfastly and persistently” towards implementing what he described as essential infrastructure projects for Larnaca, stressing that these projects would go ahead.
“We will proceed with a plan and with what we have agreed with Larnaca. Regardless of the statements being made, we will not change course. We will continue to support Larnaca, because it deserves it, and we will do so,” he underlined.
Turning to the project timelines for the Larnaca port and marina, Vafeades said he had proposed moving ahead with the marina project, “which no one has contested”, so as not to lose a further three months. He also said it struck him as contradictory that, on the one hand, there was an expressed intention to speed up the project, while on the other hand scepticism persisted.