The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Costas Karamanlis, spoke on SKAI TV and specifically on the show “Unmatched” about the determination of the government and himself personally for the continuation and completion of large and small projects throughout the country.
On the issue of transport, the minister said that «A great effort has been made, mainly by the administrations and the employees, so that a company that during SYRIZA was in the “Tartars” and had 820 buses, today we managed to double their number».
As he admitted, the problems have not been solved and the Public Transport needs further support, but as he said “in no case are we where we were three years ago”.
“There will be no increase in ticket prices, but no decrease either”
The minister promised that there would be no increase in the price of tickets at the MMM, but at the same time pointed out that “there is no thought of a reduction.” As already mentioned, the ticket was reduced 3 years ago, while it is impressive that 70% of MMM users have cards, where there are bigger discount packages. “Our goal is for 1 in 3 of our fellow citizens to use the MMM.”
Regarding the recruitments, Mr. Karamanlis underlined that many were done, even after 14 years, but, as he stated, “more are needed”.
The bus fleet in Athens and Thessaloniki
“We are talking about the absolute doubling of buses,” said the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. He continued: “A coordinated effort was made to” resurrect “Public Transport. The competition is progressing and we will have new electric buses at the beginning of 2023. There is also serious planning for Line 4 and the Metro extensions in Piraeus “.
“Orgasm”… works
For the “orgasm” of works, Mr. Karamanlis stated that it is money from Europe. “Today our country stars in the Eastern Mediterranean. “All these projects, over 8 billion euros, are from the NSRF (European Funds), from the Recovery Fund and this government has shown an incredible seriousness to unblock old projects and start new ones”.
The works “Aktio-Amvrakia” and “Patra – Pyrgos”
According to the minister, these are two emblematic works, which had been “stuck” for several years. The Aktio-Amvrakia project is moving ahead of schedule and announced that this project, the first 17 of the 32 kilometers, will be delivered in the summer, ie within the next quarter!
For the project “Patras – Tower”, he admitted – after being pointed out by journalists – that this is the worst road in Europe.
“The construction sites have started and we have a construction period of 30 to 36 months. Therefore, in 2024 we hope that a large part of the project will be finished and in 2025 it will be completed “.
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