TRNC Speeding Fines By SMS... and More

The Minister of Public Works and Transport, Mr Erhan Arikli, recently announced to the Turkish Agency Cyprus News agency a number of important transport-related measures. The following is a digest of those announcements.

Speeding Fines by SMS

The Minister said that at the moment there are 112 speed detection cameras in the country many of which are not working. Mr Arikli said that a Turkish company, Radarsan , an organisation affiliated with the Turkish defence industry, is currently producing 150 cameras to replace all the existing cameras. That figure may be increased to 300 cameras if necessary. The Minister said "we are now having great difficulty in notifying and collecting camera fines. However, technology can now handle this very easily. As soon as a violator of the speed restriction is caught on camera a notice of fine will be sent to his mobile phone. This message will also go to the airport and border gates." Mr Arikli also said that the government is working on an E- Communicate law to support this development.

The Scales of Justice

Mr Arikli also announced that in conjunction with Radarsan a number of electronic weighing systems will be inaugurated which will detect and measure the weight of trucks. Those vehicles with an excessive load will be processed using the same software. Mr Arikli said that the damage caused by a vehicle carrying a load of 40 tons corresponds to the passage of 6000 cars.

New Registration Plate Numbers

Mr Arikli said that by the end of September all the available vehicle registration numbers in the format “AA 001" will have been exhausted. At present two alternative systems are being considered. Numbers in the format "A A 001 A" or "001 AA". The alternative ideas will be presented to the Council of Ministers who will make a final decision. A previous proposal to use numbers in the format "AAA 111" was abandoned as it might have caused confusion with Greek Cypriot plates.

Great Relief – Nicosia Northern Ring Road

Discussing new road projects Mr Ridley emphasised that the traffic in Nicosia will be greatly improved with the Northern Ring Road project and smart intersection projects. The Minister reported that the Republic of Turkey, through its Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, have provided the resources to enable the compulsory purchase of 32 parcels of land to enable the Northern Ring Road project to proceed. This project will be completed by April of next year at the latest and will improve traffic flows especially at the Gonyeli roundabout.

Mr Arikli also said that there will be five smart intersection projects from the Gonyeli Alpet junction to Haspolat which will greatly relieve the traffic in Nicosia.

There were further problems with compulsory purchase, military units and transmission lines in the project related to the Dagyolun to Dipkapaz Monastery Road. All three of these problems, said the Minister, are very substantial and in the end we decided to widen the existing road a bit.

Roadworks in the Works

Speaking about the road projects in the country the Minister said that "we currently have a road network of approximately km. Of this 181 km are dual carriageways and 338 km are single lane. The rest are third class roads.

Mr Araki said that two big companies from Turkey are building the eastern and western approach roads to Kyrenia. Other roadbuilding projects are coming from our local budget. Serious resources have been allocated to the Kyrenia -Alsancak road which is about to be completed. The Catalkoy to Kyrenia road work will start immediately after that thanks to the interest shown by the Prime Minister Mr Ustel.

Home Fibre-optic Internet Tender

Mr Arikli stated that the fibre optic to home internet project was very important and said that tenders for it will be issued by the end of the year. The Minister said that he had brought together all the stakeholders and existing players in fibreoptics. He said "all the companies, including the Telephone Department, should come together and cooperate on this issue. The Council of Ministers has given the green light and a Privatisation Committee will meet very soon to prepare a report. Decisions will be made by the end of this year. The fibre to the house project is very important for us. If we call ourselves an "informatics Island", if we call ourselves an "University island" we need to catch up with the technology as in other countries. The era of communicating with copper wires has passed," he said.

Mr Arikli said that the cost of the project, which will be met by the stakeholders, will be about $30 million.

The Ports of Kyrenia and Famagusta Are in A Deplorable Condition

On the issue of the ports of Famagusta and Kyrenia Mr Arikli said "when I was appointed I asked the experts from the Privatisation Administration of the Republic of Turkey and the Directorate of the Maritime Affairs for advice. These experts came and inspected both ports and presented their report. According to this report the breakwater of Kyrenia Harbour was undermined and that it could be destroyed in stormy weather so that the Harbour would lose its function and that it would take a long time to repair it. The technical inspection at Famagusta port revealed that the dock of the port had collapsed and that the port had one and a half to two years of life left. They recommended that the investment in urgent measures should be taken."

Mr Arikli concluded by saying "There was a decision taken in 2001 regarding the privatisation of these two ports and Gemikonagi Port. That decision has been postponed for 23 years and in the meantime no money has been provided to invest in them because, we said, it will be privatised anyway.”

Stating that the situation of the ports of Kyrenia and Famagusta is deplorable and steps should be taken quickly to resolve them and the problem of "handling". “If you separate the port services, which we call “handling”, which is the most important source of income for the ports, and give them to someone else you cannot then privatise the ports. Who would want them without the most important source of income? Does this mean "let's not privatise the port?". This is an important issue to be discussed in the Council of ministers in the near future. However, I have to inform the public that the situation of our two major ports is very serious."

Source (Turkish): Ministry of Public Works & Transportation

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