Dora Christodoulou
It was considered the project that would change the data and that would help Paphos to “launch” in the tourism and economic sector compared to all other areas of Cyprus.
On a practical level, 15 years after those first celebrations, Paphos sees one after the other the coastal areas of Cyprus acquiring or launching their own marinas, while it is still trapped in legal proceedings, consortia and changes. of state plans that lead nowhere. The reason for the famous, as things are evolving, marina of Paphos. A project designed to be the largest of its kind in Cyprus and whose long “journey” from court to court and from ministerial offices to joint ventures still seems to have a long way to go.
Just recently, and while everything showed that the new approach adopted by the state for the combined development of a marina and anchorage could be a quick start to the proceedings, another bad news came to reverse the climate: Another appeal was filed in the Courts, this time for reasons precisely related to the cogeneration processes being promoted. And that practically means another serious time delay, which in relation to the respective projects of other provinces and the economic backwardness that the pandemic entails directly cast doubt on the future of the project.
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The marina that was decided in the year 2006 to be built in the location of Potima of Kissonerga, on the coastal avenue of Coral Bay, and is now characterized by all the actors of Paphos as the most characteristic example of a project that while everyone talks about the need to promote large development projects. will give impetus to the economic, commercial and tourist development of the place and at the same time will contribute positively to the employment sector, however its implementation remains unreasonably stagnant. Taking a “dive in time”, until we reach the latest developments with the new judicial involvement in the proceedings, we read in the relevant announcement that the project included its design, construction, financing, operation for 90 years and then the its transfer to the Republic of Cyprus. The Paphos marina will have a capacity of approximately 1,000 boats and will include more than 42,000 sq.m. residential and commercial development.
The construction method, known as DBFOT type development (Design, construction, financing, operation and transfer) does not involve any financial cost or burden or expense for the state budget. The competent authority for the project, the cost of which is estimated at 180-200 million euros, is the Ministry of Energy, Trade, Industry and Tourism. The bids were announced through an open pre-selection process.
Interested bidders submitted their bids on June 29, 2007 and after evaluating the technical and financial dossiers, it was decided to award the project in June 2008. The tender for the construction of the Paphos marina was announced in 2006, with Poseidon as the initial bidders Grand Marina of Paphos, Pafilia, Pandora Investements, Cybarco, Francoudi & Stephanou and J&P – AVAX.
Following the first assignment to the Pandora consortium, a hierarchical appeal was lodged with the Tender Review Authority. The A.A.P. considered the first tender invalid because it did not meet the terms and specifications of the tender documents and was not accompanied by all the required documents and information.
Following the annulment decision of the Tender Review Authority in the hierarchical appeal registered in 2008 by a consortium, appeals followed to the Supreme Court and at the same time an order was suspended to suspend the execution of the A.A.P.
On 17 July 2009 the plenary session of the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision and annulled the above decree. The Supreme Court, in consideration of one of the appeals, annulled the decision of the Reviewing Authority and upheld the decision of the Contracting Authority. This decision of the Supreme Court was appealed. Due to this pending lawsuit, the Ministry of Energy, Trade, Industry and Tourism ruled that it is not legal to take any action in connection with the work of the Paphos marina, before the completion of the court proceedings. Thus, the Council of Ministers with a decision in 2010 decided to freeze the process for the promotion and construction of the marina.
It was only the beginning of what would follow and which resulted in 2021 no one still knows when the works for this marina will begin.
2017 was considered the pivotal year of the resumption of efforts to unblock the project from the legal field and the promotion of planning. The meeting of the Management Committee of the Marinas on March 6 of this year was considered as the final one and the one that would give the green light for the start of the project, after securing from the preferred consortium the required bank guarantees. The Commission, however, expressed doubts as to whether the evidence presented before it met the conditions of the tender and decided to re-send the file to the Advocate General for an opinion.
Paphos economic agents expressed after those developments the fear that in practice this finding may mean the resumption of the procedures for the offer of the marina, with these years and the procedures that were made to be considered non-existent.
Fear that has, unfortunately, been confirmed since more than a decade later the procedures are not only still incomplete, but even worse, they are at a stage that no one can describe with certainty.
The important work
Asked if the promotion of marinas in other provinces creates problems in the province of Paphos anyway after the delay in the promotion of its own marina, the president of the Cyprus Association of Large Developments and former president of EBE Paphos, Andreas Dimitriadis areas is not a disadvantage for Paphos, but instead is a positive event for the enrichment of tourism throughout Cyprus. “We must keep in mind”, he stressed, “that the marina of Paphos due to its strategic position is considered the most important in Cyprus anyway. It is no coincidence that it is planned to be the largest in Cyprus with a capacity of 1,000 boats, since Paphos is the point of attraction for this type of tourists from the Aegean “.
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