Piale Pasha to get €1.1 million facelift

A facelift of Larnaca’s Piale Pasha will begin in the autumn, the House refugees committee heard on Tuesday as part of a briefing on several projects taking place in refugee areas of the city.

Piale Pasha is not just an iconic façade for Larnaca, but for Cyprus as a whole, as the first thing tourists see after landing at Larnaca airport, the city’s mayor Andreas Vyras, who was invited to brief the committee his municipality’s plans for the area, said.

The committee heard that Piale Pasha is due for a facelift, with building facades to be repaired and painted in tones based on the original architecture of the area, which “will give this very important street in our city a special and very beautiful look,” he said.

The mayor said extensive repairs will be carried out, replacing doors and windows, and other elements that will improve quality of life for those living in the area.

The project will cost €1.1 million and “will change the face of this area, which welcomes thousands of people”. It will cover the area from Larnaca Castle to the point where Piale Pasha ends and Tasos Mitsopoulos avenue begins.

Committee chair Nicos Kettiros said after the session that the renovation of the facades of houses on Piale Pasha “is a project that will change the face of the city in general”.

He added that tenders for the project will be announced in two weeks’ time, while works are expected to begin between late September and early October.

“It shows that when the relevant services have the right political direction, they can be both fast and efficient,” he added.

Vyras also briefed the committee on other works related to refugee areas, such as ‘Mesogeios’ park in the Turkish Cypriot district, which will enable the artists gathered in the area to exhibit their work “and beautify a huge open space that for years remained unexploited”.