Mr. Kostas Ach. Karamanlis, Minister of Transport and Infrastructures, Mr. Yiannis Kefalogiannis, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructures, and Mr. Giorgos Karagiannis, Secretary General of Infrastructures visited the worksite of “Piraeus” Station on the Metro Line 3 extension from Aghia Marina to Dimotiko Theatro, on Thursday, December 19th, 2019.
Statements made by Mr. Kostas Ach. Karamanlis, Minister of Infrastructures and Transport during his visit at the worksite of PIRAEUS Station on the Metro Line 3 extension from Aghia Marina to Dimotiko Theatro
Mr. Kostas Ach. Karamanlis, Minister of Infrastructures and Transport, Mr. Yiannis Kefaloyiannis, Deputy Minister of Infrastructures and Transport, and Mr. George Karayiannis, Secretary General of Infrastructures, in the presence of representatives of the Greek Parliament, the local government and ATTIKO METRO S.A., visited the worksite of PIRAEUS Station in the Metro Line 3 extension on Thursday, December 19th, 2019.
During this visit, the Minister of Infrastructures and Transport made the following statements before the journalists:
“Before starting my statements, I would like to express my condolences to the family of the engineer who was employed by ATTIKO METRO S.A. and lost his life on Monday due to heart attack.
We are visiting today the central Metro station in the area of Piraeus to acquire first hand insight into the current conditions and the delay of at least one year and a half in the progress of the project ever since we took over the governance of the state, i.e. five and a half months ago.
As most of you are well aware of, this project has experienced too many difficulties.
Our visit – inspection – just revealed that not even concreting works of the main station commenced in 2019 in this project that was supposed to have already been delivered. This means that the contractual obligation concerning the completion of the three stations, i.e. MANIATIKA, PIRAEUS and DIMOTIKO THEATRO, will be fulfilled in 2021. This is the contractual obligation and that is what we have to focus on.
First of all, we must tell the citizens of Piraeus – in all sincerity – that this project will be ready neither in 2020, nor in 2021. However, rest assured that we will make all possible efforts to deliver it in 2022.
I believe that whoever takes up a post – in this case ATTIKO METRO S.A. management, represented here today by its Chairman and Managing Director – must speak the truth. In our case, we should be very clear about what was delivered to this management and when this management is to complete and commission the subject project. Bear in mind that at the end of the day, we will all be judged by our statements.
The first three stations will be ready in early summer. However, what is going on here is quite absurd: while the stations will be ready for commissioning, it is most likely that the fare collection system of the Metro network will not have been completed, due to delays caused by the previous government. Therefore, it is most probable for the stations to be ready but not in service. OASA’s management is fighting a huge fight to have the system ready in terms of both installation and operation. We will soon be able to inform you accordingly and we hope that we will not be faced with this comic and at the same time dramatic phenomenon, for the stations to be ready and their commercial operation not to be feasible”.
When a reporter raised a question about the Tramway network, the Minister of Infrastructures and Transport stated as follows:
“The Tramway network is ready and I think that the citizens of Piraeus are already witnessing the first trial runs. We can commission it immediately. However, there is a problem: based on the programming of Attica Prefecture represented by Mr. Patoulis, Head of the Region of Attica, certain works will commence at Delta Falirou in January 2020 expected to last four to six months, as a minimum. Thus, the matter before us is whether it would be advisable or not to set the Tramway in operation for one month, then suspend its operation and then re-commission it. This issue was one of the most critical issues that we have discussed with the Mayor and we will have a meeting with Mr. Patoulis and the agencies concerned to make a common decision on it. As you know, in many occasions such decisions have to be made jointly, because they affect the daily lives of the citizens of Piraeus. We do not live at a time when the government and each Minister makes his own decisions.
Thank you very much.”
