Farmers in the Limassol region will receive around €2 million in compensation due to hailstorms, the construction of the motorway from Limassol to Saittas starting in January 2018, and measures to support those who choose to live in Limassol’s mountainous area are under discussion, was announced on Monday.
After a meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades, mayors of the region and the interior minister Limassol’s union of communities chairman Lefteris Periclis said he had the impression the president definitely wanted to find solutions to the chronic problems of the area.
One of them is the motorway. “The first phase will begin on January 1, 2018 and will cover the distance from Polemidia to Palodia,” Periclis said, “it will cost around €20 million.”
The overall project will cost €150 million and will have three phases. The second phase will be from Palodia to Alassa and the third from Alassa to Saittas.
Another problem is that young people choose to live in cities and the mountain communities “have become almost old people’s homes”. Regarding this, the chairman explained that until 2012 there was a scheme under which young couples were subsidised up to 17,000 euros to remain in villages but this was stopped in 2012.
“Today we discussed whether to bring this back,” he noted. “The president instructed the interior minister to look at the issue again and also at the possibility of selling land to young families at a low price.”
Asked about the issue of heating fuel subsidies, he said it is difficult to support this now due to economic limitations.
However, from January 2017 farmers in the area will be paid a total of around €2 million as compensation for hail which damaged their crops.
At the meeting it was also decided to relaunch a bid for running a hospital in the mountains for which no satisfactory tender has been found yet.
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