“Thessaloniki is at the forefront of the government’s priorities” and the government’s plan for the city “has not only an economic” but also a “deep social dimension“, stated the person responsible for the Coordination of Government Policies Minister of State Akis Skertsosvisiting, together with other members of the government, former camps of western Thessaloniki and peri-urban areas, which are part of the government planning for the “Thessaloniki of 2030».

“We are interested in development in Greece, we have high growth rates, but we are interested in this development being coherent, involving all citizens, in every corner of the country, in every corner of this citys“, emphasized Mr. Skertsos and added:

“We are discussing the implementation of the ambitious plan, which we have presented with the prime minister, for Thessaloniki in 2030, a plan with very important, emblematic, development projects for the city and the people, concerning infrastructure, the economy, entrepreneurship, development , education, health, recreation, sports, culture. We are making significant progress on several projects».

The minister pointed out that “it will be a historic year for the city, because it will see the new metro”, noting that it will be “the most modern metro in Europe».

As he added, the project will also highlight the archaeological wealth of the city, as “750,000 archaeological findings have been found, which will be housed in five stations” and “we are planning stations that will essentially be museums, they will be a sixth solution to the traffic problem of city ​​and a pole of attraction and tourist development for the city”.

Mr. Skertsos pointed out that at the same time urban transportation is being redesigned, with the addition of a new fleet of five hundred new buses, within the next four years, which will change the transportation landscape and he continued:

“The government’s goal is for the routes to have a time interval between five and ten minutes and to connect in the best possible way with the metro stations, in order to make the lives of citizens easier and to get out of the isolation of the most remote areas of the city, outside the center».

The Minister of State also referred to other government planning projects, such as the connection of the port with the railway, the suburban railway, the cluster of four courthouses in cities of Northern Greece, the upgrading and renovation of the emergency rooms of fourteen hospitals and health centers, the seventeen new school units – eleven of them on the west side of the city – with a contractor within 2023, the utilization of former camps, etc.

Mr. Skertsos particularly highlighted the initiatives undertaken in western Thessaloniki to upgrade the quality of life of the citizens.

“Thessaloniki is at the forefront of the government’s priorities and will be for many years to come, until we reach the Thessaloniki of our dreams that becomes a reality“, he added.

The government echelon visited the Karatassiou camp, in part of which the new oncology hospital, Sheikh Sou, will be built, where four trees were symbolically planted, as well as the peri-urban area of ​​the municipality of Pavlos Melas, which with new tree plantings will be transformed into a new incident forest and completed his tour at the former “Ziaka” camp in Cordelios.

“In total, reforestation is planned, with four hundred thousand new trees in Thessaloniki, so that it will have a “green ring” that will embrace it from the east to the west side“, said Mr. Skertsos.

Regarding the former “Ziaka” camp, which belongs to the Ministry of Finance, he noted that the goal is to utilize it, as a new area of ​​regeneration, with the legislative framework of “social compensation” for inactive areas, for various uses, residential, environmental, and .a.

Statements St. Caulk

“It is a strategy of the government and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to develop Thessaloniki until 2030 and to transform it into an important development pole in the entire wider region“, said the Deputy Minister of Interior (Macedonia – Thrace) Stavros Kalafatis.

Mr. Kalafatis referred to the thirty – and more – projects planned for Thessaloniki, based on the “Thessaloniki 2030” agenda, with a specific philosophy, so that together with universities, research centers, infrastructures, development and extroversion of the city, but at the same time to balance the development deficit of the western side with the development dynamics of the rest of the city.

Statements by G. Amyras

The undersecretary for the environment Giorgos Amyras mentioned the forest clearings carried out by the central government.

“Since last year and for the first time in Greek history, we entered, as a Greek State, as a Greek Government and proceeded to clear forests. No one was clearing any forest. Not a twig came out, not even a dry pinecone. That is why we initially saved 50 million euros from the Recovery Fund and another 22 million euros from the state budget and proceeded to open forest roads that were closed, impassable — a total length of 13,000 kilometers. That is, a distance more than 20 times the distance between Athens and Thessaloniki, so that the fire department and the foresters can move. We also proceeded to open fire zones, a total length of 3,000 kilometers and cleared tens of hundreds of hectares of sensitive forest ecosystems. Here, in Thessaloniki, in Sheikh Sou, we proceeded to open 160 kilometers of fire protection zones and forest roads. This, unfortunately, has never been done until now. This year we will expand these actions even more. With an additional 5,500,000 euros we will clear 14,300 acres of Sheikh Su and at the same time we will remove all the diseased trees. We are already removing the trees affected by the bark-eating insect in the last two years. Consider that Sheikh Su is spread over 35,000 acres and we will clear half of it this year“, he stated.

“We continue the reforestation, we thin the vegetation, we take care of the trees that are attacked by the bark-eating insect and, at the same time, we are preparing the fire prevention plans for 1,600,000 hectares of forest” added Mr. Amyras, concluding: “I regret that for so many years no central government has deal with these obvious and very serious issues. The Mitsotakis government, however, differs from all previous ones. It has set as its first objective the protection of the natural environment and, of course, the promotion and protection of biodiversity».

In the morning, a meeting of the echelon of government officials was held at the Governor’s Office, where flood prevention projects, renovations, the prospect of utilizing the former “Gonou” camp for logistics, etc. were also discussed.

The meeting and the subsequent visits to parts of the city were attended by the Minister of State, responsible for the Coordination of Government Policies, Akis Skertsos, the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, the Deputy Minister of Health Mina Gaga, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, responsible for Macedonian affairs and Thrace, Stavros Kalafatis, the Deputy Minister of Environment Giorgos Amyras, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Giorgos Karagiannis, the Deputy Minister of Environment responsible for Spatial Planning, Nikos Tagaras, the Secretary General of Government Coordination Thanasis Kontogeorgis, the Secretary General of Transport Yiannis Xifaras and the head of the Prime Minister’s Office in Thessaloniki, Maria Antoniou. The visits to the former camps were attended by the mayors of western Thessaloniki, members of parliament, the metropolitan of Neapolis and Stavroupoleos, etc. Varnavas, etc.