A road project costing 18.3 million euros, plus VAT, is adding bus lanes, cycle paths and pedestrian crossings to Larnaca’s roads. Under the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), changes have started to show, and the works will significantly change how traffic moves.
The work started on June 9, 2026, after a delay of many months, and is due to finish in August 2027. Its main aim is to improve road safety, accessibility and mobility. The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility will fund it, under Cyprus’s Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The works will focus on 11 major avenues in Larnaca, five secondary roads, two of them in Aradippou, and eight local streets. Among other things, they include road surfacing and about 10.4km of bus lanes, with bus stop infrastructure, 22.3km of cycle lanes with other cycling infrastructure, 13km of pavements, 182 Pelican and zebra crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, and 174 ramps for people with disabilities. New traffic lights will be installed or existing ones upgraded, road markings and signs will be laid, and sewerage, storm water, water supply and irrigation work will be carried out.
Cycle networks will be added, among others, on Acropoleos, Spyros Kyprianou, Giannos Kranidiotis, Nikos and Despina Pattichis, Artemidos, Faneromeni and Limassol avenues. Bus lanes will be created on Eleftherias Street and on Nikos and Despina Pattichis, Artemidos and Makarios avenues. The designs also include one-way streets, fewer vehicle lanes on main avenues, reworked main junctions to improve safety measures, planting and paving.
Progress so far
According to data the Department of Public Works gave Phileleftheros, pavements and ramps are complete, along with planters and pedestrian crossings, on Dimitras, Spyros Kyprianou, Kimonos, Vanker, Makarios III, Kyriakou Matsi, Omirou and Artemidos streets. Asphalting is complete on Dimitras Street and due to continue on the rest. Dimitras Street, in the Pampoula area of central Larnaca, runs off Makarios Avenue through the old craft district. Work is continuing on Eleftherias, Acropoleos, Australias, Makarios III and Kyriakou Matsi avenues and on Einar Street, rebuilding and improving pavements, building ramps and pedestrian crossings and creating planters where the approved designs provide for them. When that is done, the bus lanes and cycle path will be asphalted and shaped.
Faneromeni Avenue
Faneromeni Avenue, a busy road, had drawn many complaints to local authorities in recent years over the state of the road and its pavements. Work is under way in three consecutive phases, each with two sections. In the first phase, work on the first section is finished: ramps, rebuilt pavements, planters and central islands, milling and new asphalt. That section opened to traffic on September 14, in the direction from the Cineplex roundabout to the Faneromeni roundabout. Work is now under way on the right side of the road. The second phase will run from the Faneromeni roundabout to Egyptou Street, and the third to the avenue’s traffic lights. The work is expected to finish next summer.
Reactions and planting
Asked by Phileleftheros whether there are reactions to the works, Larnaca district engineer at the Department of Public Works Lazaros Lazarou said: “The reactions so far are very isolated, we are examining them and adjustments are being made, especially for commercial premises.”
Posts to separate the cycle paths, which drew fierce reactions in Limassol, will be installed in the coming period so that their users can use them safely. Lazarou said the intention is to install about 50 per cent of the small posts provided for in the design, to stop cars parking on the cycle paths.
Larnaca Mayor Andreas Vyras said: “It is not possible for a city today not to have cycle paths, provisions for public transport and more greenery. The works will also increase safety on the roads. My position is that to save lives, let us put up with a little more inconvenience.”
Larnaca Municipality will take on planting in the spaces created by the works, and large trees will be planted there, Vyras said. “Where feasible, islands are created where we will plant. On Faneromeni, planting will take place as soon as the first phase of the project is complete,” he said. He added that concrete was placed at one point on the dividing island because utilities run underneath and trees cannot be planted there.
Other projects
Two other SUMP projects, park and ride stations in Aradippou and Kalo Chorio, are due to be completed by the end of the year. The two works will cost 4.4 million euros. The Aradippou station will be near the Rizoelia roundabout, with a ground-floor building with a canopy, a stop for two buses and 67 uncovered parking spaces. The Kalo Chorio station will be near the roundabout of the same name, with a ground-floor building with a canopy, a stop for two buses and 195 uncovered parking spaces.
A third project, indirectly linked to the SUMP, is a new Central Bus Station in the centre of Larnaca. Work has started and, according to the Department of Public Works, it will be finished in a year if there are no delays. It costs 6.4 million euros and includes, among other things, ticket offices, office space, a waiting room and eight bus stops. It will work as an interchange hub serving urban, intercity and regional lines at once, with direct connections to Larnaca Airport.
