The issue of the concession of Egnatia Road is closed by the end of the year, declared from the floor of the Parliament the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure & Transport Nik. Tachiaos, on the occasion of a topical question by MP Kilkis of PASOK-Change Movement St. Parastatidis, on the subject of “Tragic delays in the implementation of the PATHE Polykastro Malgaron project and measures to prevent traffic accidents”.

As Mr. Tahiaos said, the objective of the ministry is to facilitate TAIPED which, according to its relevant letter, intends, by the end of the year, to close the contract with the preferred investor. The basic orientation of the Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport is that the concession of the Egnatia road should proceed and the construction of the second branch of descent to Thessaloniki should be prioritized, said Mr. Tachiaos in response to Mr. Parastatidis who had raised the road problems security in the existing section of PATHE Polykastro-Malgaron, and especially the lack of parapets.

Elaborating on his question, Mr. Parastatides had observed that 8 million vehicles pass through this road a year, that more than 50 lives have been lost in the last 20 years and that we have more than 150 seriously injured. At the same time, he called on the government to give the timetable for the project, but, until its completion, to install parapets, as they have, after all, proposed by the Thessaloniki Traffic and the Kilkis Police Department

In response, Mr. Tachiaos said that the concession holder is obliged to build a second road, parallel to the one that goes up to Polykastro, and to keep the existing one as a descent branch. “Well, what concerns us is how TAIPED will proceed very quickly with the concession”. As for road safety issues, he said that the road should be controlled, mainly with policing measures at the moment, so that there are no speed limit violations and illegal overtaking. Regarding the installation of parapets, he said that money cannot be invested and after a year and a half it is removed.

Concluding, Mr. Tahiaos said: “It has to be understood that in the fact that many of us, myself included, see an open road and swerve, because usually most accidents are caused by excessive speed and by swerving into the opposite flow of traffic, it does not mean that there should be a police officer behind each of us, of course, nor that infinite amounts of money should be invested for each of us because we decide not to comply with the KOK. I understand the problem but I think we have to adapt it to the reality which is that only by building the dual carriageway will we ensure the levels of safety we need on this particular road.”