Flooded streets in downtown Limassol should be a thing of the past on completion late next year of a €7 million anti-flooding project in the castle area, Limassol mayor Nicos Nicolaides said on Tuesday.

He spoke after visiting the site with the general manager of the Limassol sewerage board Yiannis Tsouloftoas. The project got underway last week and covers the area around the castle and Anexartisias street.

It is the second such project for the town which has suffered from serious flooding during consecutive winters, enraging restaurants and shopkeepers.

Nicolaides said it is expected to be finished in 20 months, that is by the end of 2023 by which time an anti-flooding project underway in north Limassol should also be completed.

“These two large projects will bolster our town from floods and create effective antiflooding protection so that the people of Limassol, whether they are businesses or households, will no longer face this problem,” he said.

Provisions have been included in the contract for the town centre project to minimise disturbance on residents, businesses and traffic. These include double shifts, penalties for delays and a bonus for early finish.

The project will divert rain water coming from the north to Garilis river bed to the west and requires the digging up of 27 streets in the town centre and pipes of four kilometres, Tsouloftas said.

Because the area is historically important, an archaeologist has been hired to monitor the work.