The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport was hosted on SKAI TV and on “Mismatches”, Christos Staikouras.

Mr. Staikouras, initially invited to comment on today’s front page of “Avgi” about Tempi, pointed out that “the obligation of the Ministry of Infrastructure is to strengthen the safety of passengers”, while in the field of political responsibilities he reminded that EDOSSAAM, the new investigation organization of air and rail accidents, is thoroughly investigating the case and is in constant communication with the European authority.

“Transportation is safe, but there is always the human factor and we always have to do as much as possible” continued the minister, even bringing to the table the example of level crossings, for which “we issued two weeks ago for the first time with a provision of the law to the Parliament 25 million euros to solve the issue”.

“Don’t forget that the famous contract 717 was delivered on time in September 2023, but then we had the bad weather ‘Daniel’, so the corresponding part of Thessaly is completely destroyed from Domoko to Larissa.”

“However, the restoration of the damages will be ready by the end of 2025, with the cost amounting to 463 million euros”, underlined Christos Staikouras.

“Particularly increased demand for electric cars”

The minister then referred to electric car subsidies.

“The existing program is running at a satisfactory pace, I want to tell you that there is much more demand than the available funds. Today alone we will pay 1,510 of our fellow citizens more than 5 million euros, while in total we have paid more than 26 million euros to 7,000 of our fellow citizens. And these only in ‘Move Electric 2’.”

With reference to “Moving Electric 3”, Mr. Staikouras noted that in the next few weeks the Joint Ministerial Decision will be published, where the subsidies for natural persons, for the withdrawal of cars will be slightly increased, but will be reduced for legal persons, while at the same time he noted that “we have the oldest fleet of vehicles in Europe, whether we are talking about buses, cars or trucks”.

Asked about the electric buses and their degree of readiness, the minister assured that they are fully operational in Athens and Thessaloniki, as they have been integrated into the transport network of the two cities.

“This morning the first 46 buses started in Athens. In fact, I boarded one and came from Rentis here to Piraeus together with citizens. We estimate that this number will double within two weeks. In Thessaloniki, we start the first buses on Monday, faithful to our timetable”.

Regarding Kifissos and dealing with the daily traffic congestion, Mr. Staikouras revealed that a collective solution is being studied, a competition by TAIPED, where a space will be created in Fyli to facilitate transportation.