Speaking to SKAI today, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Christos Staikouras, characterized the Thessaloniki Metro as “the most important project that has been implemented in urban fabric in recent years”.

For the problems observed in the previous 2 days, after the inauguration, the minister stated: “There is no way such a large public project does not have issues – some we knew about, some arose and will be fixed.

A problem that we were aware of and that requires patience from the citizens, is to acclimatize to the concept of the personalized card and how the tickets are issued

Also, we had very bad weather. We found problems with the elevator in two stations. Why? Outside the station, a canopy had to be inserted, which the architects said should not be inserted for aesthetic reasons. however, for reasons of substance it is necessary”.

Mr. Staikouras also mentioned the next steps of the project.

Regarding the extension to Kalamaria: “The 5 additional stations will be given to the citizens in one year from today, until the end of 2025”.

On the expansion to the west, Toumba, Harilau and the airport: “We have to find the financing tools first – we can’t give a timetable yet.”

For infrastructure damage from bad weather

The minister referred to the damage to the infrastructures that are observed more and more frequently due to bad weather.

“This is not only happening in Greece, it is happening all over the world as you can see, why the infrastructure was built decades ago, with different climate conditions, now we have extremes.

So what should we do? Starting from Thessaly, we make more resilient infrastructures – we already did it in the case of Ianos. In the coming weeks, 8 projects will run simultaneously for more resilient infrastructure in road networks, bridges and rail.

For Rhodes, over the next two years, 1.4 billion projects will be carried out, mainly road projects, which will start at the beginning of 2025.

Flood protection projects are the responsibility of the Regions – Responsibility of the ministry when a project of strategic importance is declared

“In Attica – 7 projects of the ministry, in addition to those of the Region. Some will be delivered within 2025 and in some we have surprises from extreme reactions concerning some Attic fish or other incidents, which cause a problem in financing from Europe” Mr. Staikouras emphasized.