Protesters demand dual carriageway
HUNDREDS of protesters blocked the Girne-Alsancak road to protest at rush-hour jams on the route and what the two mayors slammed as government “broken promises” to turn it into a dual carriageway.
Flag- and banner-waving demonstrators gathered near Escape beach on Thursday afternoon to back a new NorthWestern Development Movement launched by Alsancak and Lapta municipalities under the slogan: “Either find a road, open a road, or move out of the road.”
Team kit-clad Lapta footballers and even donkeys joined the crowd for the hour-and-a-half-long protest, which saw long tailbacks build up in both directions.
Lapta Mayor Mustafa Aktuğ claimed widening the first 5km stretch from the end of the Girne bypass westwards would cost 35 million TL, but they were frustrated that “no-one [had] lifted a finger to either build the dual carriageway on the existing road, or find another route” over the last seven years.
“Alsancak has 5,000 more new buildings being built and Lapta about 500 more construction sites, including hotels,” he said.
“This means there will be at least 2,000 more vehicles on our roads within the coming years.
“At every rush hour, morning and evening, traffic chaos is turning what should be one of the most beautiful parts of our country into a nightmare.
Mr Aktuğ, who called the situation “the shame of past and present governments for failing to see the misery”, warned of “more and bigger protests” if no action was taken.
He added that he had heard this week of a British tourist having abandoned a trip from Girne to see a property in Lapta with an estate agent because of the chaos, and asked: “Is this the future of our tourism? Is this the beauty of Alsancak and Lapta?”
Alsancak Mayor Fırat Ataser slammed ministers and local MPs for failing to attend the demo, and Transport and Public Works Minister Tolga Atakan for doing nothing since he took office in February.
“We have been played with, just like [his predecessor Kemal Dürüst] played with us. And he is no longer there. Politicians must understand that if they play with the people, the people will, in the end, play with them,” he said to applause.
Mr Ataser said while successive governments had not acted, his municipality had spoken to landowners along the route about potential expropriation for the project, and was “happy to say they are willing”. He added: “Some are calling us anarchists. We aren’t! We want a better quality of life. We should not have to take one-and-a-half hours to travel what should take 15 minutes.
“If the government is unable to build the road, then . . . empower us to do it.”
Tourism and Environment Minister Fikri Ataoğlu pledged to Cyprus Today by phone that he would raise the issue at the Council of Ministers, saying: “This situation is a much bigger issue than a ‘road’, because it is impacting on tourism and the economy. Having roads is part of living in a modern country.”