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Nicosia’s Makarios Avenue reopens

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Shops on the once busy Makarios Avenue in the capital’s centre are ready to welcome back customers after months of restructuring work in the heart of Nicosia has been completed.

The developer in charge of the project delivered the avenue to Nicosia Municipality at noon on Tuesday.

It is now open for people to stroll and shop at their favourite shops.

The avenue is designed to be accessible only by foot, bicycle, or bus, while only delivery vehicles and people living in the area will be allowed to drive down it.

However, plans to keep Nicosia’s central avenue ‘green’ may overturn, as most of the city counsellors – 17 to 10 – favour allowing private vehicles back onto the road.

For now, the municipality’s plans have been put on ice as the Traffic Studies Department, under the Transport Ministry, has not approved the move.

Rebuilding Makarios Avenue included the following projects:

  • Modification of the traffic layout to facilitate public transport, cyclists, pedestrians, the disabled, and the implementation of traffic reduction measures.
  • Redesign of the outdoor space and installing new road equipment to facilitate the widening of the pavements, creating squares/rest areas, access ramps and unobstructed access of all people with movement
  • Grounding and upgrading of utilities, new rainwater drainage system, new high efficiency LED street lighting, installation of a system for Wi-Fi provision, fibre optic system of the Municipality of Nicosia to install applications for the “smart city” program, provisions for future tram installation.
  • Bioclimatic urban design with extensive tree planting and water fountains for natural cooling. Some 300 new mature trees will be planted along Makarios Avenue.

The renovation of Makarios was part of the project “renovation of the commercial triangle Makarios – Stasikratous – Evagorou avenues” to create a modern and innovative upgraded urban shopping centre.