Nicosia - The Limnitis crossing point, in northwest Cyprus, will be officially opened by President Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu today.

The two leaders will deliver short remarks at the event, followed by European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, the Ambassador of the United States of America Frank Urbanic, UNDP RBEC (Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS States) Deputy Director Haoliang Xu, and the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Alexander Downer.

Construction work on the road linking the towns of Kato Pyrgos/Asagi Pirgo and Limnitis/Yesilirmak began on March 29 this year, following a series of discussions that culminated on March 24 with the signing of a contract between the United Nations Development Programme – Partnership for the Future and a joint venture comprised Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot contractors.

The opening of the crossing point will allow civilian traffic to flow again through the buffer zone running across the area. The project includes the upgrading of the road, a section of 2.2 km located in the buffer zone and another section of about 4.7 km outside of it. The Limnitis/Yesilirmak crossing point will be the seventh such gateway facilitating movement between the two main communities of Cyprus.

According to UNFICYP, the opening of the Limnitis crossing has long been a priority in discussions between the two communities. As they prepared to embark on renewed settlement talks, Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat made the opening part of the agenda in a joint statement issued on 21 March 2008.

For the past 45 years, Greek Cypriot residents in the area of Limnitis, on the northwest, have had to travel to Paphos and Limassol, on the south, to reach Nicosia. The opening of the crossing will cut this journey down to under an hour.