Larnaca’s Development Committee has voted unanimously to mount protests after the Transport Ministry announced the Cyprus Ports Authority (CPA) will not be submitting a development proposal for the city’s port and marina.

The committee convened in an emergency session after the announcement, which caught local bodies off guard. They had been officially informed by the CPA that it was preparing a development proposal covering both infrastructures, including their landside areas.

Instead, the ministry decided that political decisions should come first, based on a study commissioned from Greece’s Growthfund. The study is expected to be delivered by the end of the month and will indicate which landside areas are to be released for development.

Larnaca Mayor Andreas Vyras, who chairs the Development Committee, told philenews: “The minister told us at a meeting last Thursday that by the end of April or early May he will bring us the Growthfund proposal, which will determine how much landside space will be released from the port areas for development as we want it. He told us that once the landside space is determined, within one to one-and-a-half months he will bring a complete development proposal for the port, the marina and the landside area, with implementation possibly by the Ports Authority, with costing and specific timetables. Because two years have been lost in which nothing happened, we decided to hold a protest, the details of which will be set in the coming days, to show that enough is enough and this time there is no room for further delays.”

Vyras expressed frustration that nearly two years after the termination of the contract with the original developer, the project has still not got off the ground.

The committee also decided to hold a press conference with the participation of all of the city’s organisations to inform the public. The date of the protest will be announced in the coming days.