“For 130 years there has been no substantial intervention”, said the Prime Minister – The project will be completed in 2023
The Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was able to cross by boat Canal in order to be informed about the projects, which are temporarily delivered on Monday 4 July, as the first phase of interventions is completed after the large landslides that occurred in November 2020, January and February 2021.
“A great job has been done, congratulations to all those who have completed the first part of this very important intervention, in a work-symbol completely identified with the modernization of Greece. But, for 130 years, no substantial intervention had been made in the Corinth Canal. This is what we are doing now, the Canal will be opened with absolute safety – as we had promised – from Monday and for the next three months, to serve the summer traffic. It will be closed again from the beginning of October to make the second phase of the intervention. Next year the summer will be open for four months so that we can win in June and the project will be completed later in ’23, so that we can deliver the disputed part where we had the falls. A Canal that will be completely safe and shielded for many decades “stressed Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“At the same time, I want to encourage all those in charge and the Superfund to work on how we can highlight this unique landmark which, as you already know, receives – as you know – too many visitors, what other interventions we can do and of course combine it and by highlighting the rich archaeological wealth that exists in the wider area. The Canal should not be just a project that facilitates navigation, but also in itself a destination to be visited in order to highlight the overall tourist product of the region “added the Prime Minister.
The final restoration study, which was delivered to November 2021provided for the implementation of works in two phases: firstly, unloading works of the slopes and cleaning of the canal until July this year so that the Canal will operate during the summer months and secondly port works of stabilization of the slope base, which will begin in autumn 2022 The project has a budget of 32 million euros.
“We intervened at the right time, we finished the studies in record time, in a very difficult task. We did a lot of studies and geological and geotechnical and hydraulic and port studies that to be done at other intervals would take years “noted the Deputy Minister in charge of Infrastructure George Karagiannis, who informed the Prime Minister in detail about the progress of the projects, in the presence of the CEO of AKTOR Christos Panagiotopoulos and the site manager Nikos Aslanidis, at the floating station.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, in charge of Research and Technology and Member of Parliament for Corinth, Christos Dimas, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, in charge of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment and Corinth MP, Nikos Tagalis , the Regional Governor of Peloponnese, Panagiotis Nikas, the Deputy Regional Governor of Corinth, Athena Korka – Konsta, the Mayor of Loutraki George Gionis, the Advisor to the Office of the Prime Minister for Spatial Planning Marilena Soukoulios – President of Vilia. Pantelis Pantelidis and the CEO of Corinth Canal SA Vassilis Andrikopoulos.
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