A €61m road linking Nicosia to Palaichori will upgrade the area’s villages and improve the residents’ quality of life, Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said Sunday.

The project is expected to start in 2022.

Karousos said the project will improve access to Palaichori and other communities in the area, including Mitsero, Ayia Marina, Xyliatos and those in Pitsilia, by cutting drive times and road safety.

The minister also mentioned another road project, a controversial motorway in the Astromeritis-Evrychou area, which the cabinet decided to go ahead citing overriding public interest.

The new €70m motorway is planned to start from the existing Troodos road, south of Astromeritis, and end at the Kalopanayiotis to Kykkos junction, a length of 11.3 kilometres.

It will have four lanes and include flyovers and underground passages, as well as a roundabout.

The government said it is going ahead with the project despite the disagreement of its own environment department.

In a March 8 report, the department said, “the proposed project will have negative and irreversible effects both during construction and during operation on the protected species inside the special protection area (SPA) of the Natura 2000 area of Atsas and Ayios Theodoros.”