Green light given for line 4 of Athens Metro

Pressure for the inclusion of projects in the EU’s Recovery Fund, in combination with the long delay of critical tenders, has led the government to include the delayed tender for the first part of line 4 (Veikou Park - Goudi) of the Athens metro. Yesterday it became known that the specific project is being included in the 13 billion euro program being promoted by the ministry.

The ministry claims that New Democracy had expressed objections to the tender of the line, when it was in opposition, since the extension stops at Goudi and does not reach Perissos, as it is planned at a later stage.

But, officials add that, given the situation and the delays in other projects, "we cannot afford not to try to save this tender." Thus, the board of directors of Attiko Metro is expected to approve within days the justification of the technical offers submitted by the two bidders, the consortia of AVAX and AKTOR. The two consortia will then be invited to submit financial bids for the project.

The Ministry of Infrastructure stressed yesterday that during the recent teleconference Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had with the country’s largest construction groups, he had pointed out that the high rate of appeals, without a serious reason, needs to stop.

Due to appeals and a decision issued by the Council of State (CoC), there have been many months of delays. The tender for the preliminary works on line 4 has been delayed for almost a year and a half, where recently there was also a decision from the CoC. Yesterday, the ministry claimed that a contract would finally be signed with the technical company ERETVO.

"We want to be sure that we will not have legal complications in the main project," officials said.

In other projects, officials said yesterday that in the next few days the tender for the elevated ring road of Thessaloniki will be published, which is being implemented as a Private Public Partnership (PPP) project, while for the Northern part of E65 it was mentioned that it may start at the beginning of 2021, since the approval of the EU’s financial services is pending. On the Patras – Pyrgos road approval is required from European Commission’s three Directorates-General and to date has been obtained from one. Four railway projects will be immediately auctioned, while in 2021 the auction of six more is being targetted.