Akamas forest park visitor centres scaled back to 8 sites in new tender

Local AkamasenvironmentTop NewsTourism Akamas forest park visitor centres scaled back to 8 sites in new tender Akamas Forest Park Visitor Centres Scaled Back To 8 Sites In New Tender Relevant News Akamas forest park visitor centres scaled back to 8 sites in new tender 9 September 2026 Cyprus moves to buy state aircraft for patient transfers abroad 9 September 2026 Things to do on Wednesday, September 9 9 September 2026 Angelos Nicolaou 9 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber The Department of Forests has launched an architectural tender to redesign visitor infrastructure at the Akamas National Forest Park, scaling back a 2021 plan for 14 information and recreation hubs to just 8, in a bid to reduce the project’s environmental footprint and visual impact on the landscape. The tender covers consultancy services for a visitor management infrastructure system at six selected recreation and information points: Aspros Potamos, Avakas, South Bay of Lara, Baths of Aphrodite, Smigies and Fontana Amorosa. The facilities, serving as entry and exit points for thousands of visitors, are intended to provide information, offer rest areas, organise visitor flows and ease pressure on the park’s sensitive ecosystems. Under the design brief set by the Council of Ministers and environmental parameters agreed with stakeholders and NGOs, the new infrastructure must have a smaller footprint than the 2021 plan, use prefabricated, modular and reversible solutions, and be limited to the strictly necessary number, size and placement of structures, forming a single family of elements with a shared design language. The deadline for bids is September 25, 2026. The consultancy contract, covering design, technical specifications, tender documents for construction and site supervision, is expected to run 160 weeks — about three years — from the start date, with work due to begin shortly after bid evaluation and contract signing. Supervision of the study is costed at €180,000 (excluding VAT), while the construction project itself, co-funded by the EU under the “THALEIA 2021-2027” programme, is valued at €3 million (excluding VAT). Delivering the project will require a multi-disciplinary team of architects, civil, mechanical and electrical engineers, surveyors, quantity surveyors and landscape architects. Site by site At Avakas, which already has a car park, toilets, a water fountain and information signage, the plan adds shading and benches, space for a mobile canteen, and a 10-space bicycle rack. At the Baths of Aphrodite — a reference point drawing thousands of visitors a year, and the access point to the Blue Lagoon and Fontana Amorosa beaches — only the existing car park will be assessed under this contract; the site’s operating café-restaurant is not being studied at this stage. Aspros Potamos will get a fully equipped new car park alongside its existing shuttle and public bus stops, plus toilets, an information point, a 20-space bicycle rack (10 private, 10 for hire), a kiosk with a souvenir shop, a viewing point, sun shading, rain shelter and nearby office space. South Bay of Lara, which already has a car park and shuttle and bus stops, will get toilets, an information point, a 10-space bicycle rack, a kiosk with a souvenir shop, a viewing point, sun shading and rain shelter. Smigies will see lighter intervention: reconfiguration of its existing car park and shuttle stop, with a proposed information point and 10-space bicycle rack. Fontana Amorosa will get limited infrastructure: a new car park for up to 5 vehicles, a shuttle stop, an information point, a 10-space bicycle rack and a rain shelter. Across all six sites, the design avoids permanent construction by providing for shuttle bus stops and bicycle parking throughout, to limit private vehicle use inside the park. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Cyprus moves to buy state aircraft for patient transfers abroad Things to do on Wednesday, September 9 Mostly clear skies as Cyprus temperatures push towards 37°C Cyprus flights cancelled following widespread UK air traffic control outage Cyprus anthropologists rally behind professor in SLAPP dispute UK, France and Canada sanction Israeli West Bank settlements, in support for two-state solution France to ban products from Israeli settlements in West Bank, foreign minister says Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.