Incompetence and graft, that’s the problem. The rest is excuses.

Opinion developmentseconomyroads Incompetence and graft, that’s the problem. The rest is excuses. Tetarths Dromos Relevant News Protected areas, or open house for anyone? 2 September 2026 Incompetence and graft, that’s the problem. The rest is excuses. 2 September 2026 The 12% penalty needs a drastic cut 2 September 2026 newsroom 2 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber As former Energy Minister Yiorgos Papanastasiou put it on Sigma, “the great failure in Cyprus’s energy sector is infrastructure, namely completing infrastructure projects.” He pointed to the Vasilikos gas terminal as the textbook example, noting that we’ve been trying to finish it since 2019. State bureaucracy, tendering, appeals and the legal wrangling between everyone involved have all played their part in the delays, he said. But this isn’t just an energy problem. It’s every single infrastructure project. I’m struggling to think of one major project in this country that didn’t turn into a total mess before it got finished. A few days before that interview, the Public Works Department announced that on August 28, 2026, it had put out to tender the Deneia-Akaki-Astromeritis motorway. More than 25 years have passed since this road was declared vital and urgently needed. Fine, say there were forces beyond our control holding it up. But that long? The bare fact now is that the tender has finally gone out, yes, after a delay so absurd it’s almost impressive. The people of Solia and others in the Troodos mountains are grateful the government has finally got the project moving. But scratch beneath the surface, and we’ll end up proving Papanastasiou right, about infrastructure and delays, all over again. This is an 18-kilometre road. Just 18 kilometres! Back in August 2025, Alexis Vafeadis said the tender would go out in the first quarter of 2026, with the cost estimated at around 110 million euros plus VAT. In the end, the tender came out in the third quarter of 2026, and the cost is now put at 138 million euros plus VAT. Call that planning? They were out by 30 million euros! Thirty million! As if that’s nothing! So the delays and the cost blowouts are stacking up before a single spade has even gone in the ground. Here’s the real kicker though. Building this 18-kilometre road will take five whole years. It’ll start (if it starts at all) in the first half of 2027 and finish in the second half of 2031. That works out at 3.6 kilometres a year! This road isn’t crossing the sea or flying through the sky. It’s on solid ground. And it still needs five years. Which, of course, could easily stretch to ten once we get bogged down (and we always do) in objections, disputes, delays, court cases… The cost? Work in the VAT, and you’re looking at around nine million euros per kilometre. Millions! Surely that can’t be right? It can. We’ve seen it before, on the previous stretch of the same road, eleven kilometres, where a single valley bridge cost 30 million euros without VAT, out of a total road cost of 75 million. Take a look at what’s crammed into those 18 kilometres: Four grade-separated junctionsTwo long valley bridges (how long exactly, nobody’s saying)Four additional bridgesOverpasses and underpasses Every single kilometre, it seems, needs something to show off our ingenuity and imagination. If it’s genuinely necessary, fine. But if it’s just there to drive up the cost and the build time, something isn’t right. And that’s exactly why even a former minister admits infrastructure delivery is our problem. If you need five to ten years to build 18 kilometres of road, what are the Chinese supposed to say? They built the tallest valley bridge in the world in three years. A height of 625 metres, if you can imagine that, a main span of 1,420 metres, and it’s also the longest steel suspension bridge on mountainous terrain anywhere on Earth! Are they working miracles? No. They’re just doing what needs doing. Nothing more, nothing less. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Protected areas, or open house for anyone? The 12% penalty needs a drastic cut Erhurman says sunken Kyrenia catamaran has been located Cyprus’s madness: tragedy first, action second Cabinet approves up to €45,000 in aid for August storm damage Six West Nile virus cases confirmed in Cyprus, all hospitalised Cape Greco boat wreckage recovery to begin today as two probes continue Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.