By 2030, Greece will have critical infrastructure projects that will have been completed and will be fully operational or in a mature phase of operation, said Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Christos Dimas at the 2nd “Greece 2030,” themed “Economy & Development. Reforms, Investments, Primary Production. The New Agenda.”
Mr. Dimas spoke about the flagship projects currently in the final stages of completion and noted that the next step is to place even greater emphasis on the management of natural resources and on connectivity between the country’s critical infrastructure and that of other countries.
Specifically, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport stated that the northern section of the Central Greece Motorway (E65), spanning 45 kilometers from Kalambaka to Grevena, is scheduled to open to traffic in July. The project is funded with €450 million from the Recovery and Resilience Facility and will directly connect Central Greece with Thessaly, Western Macedonia, and Epirus.
At the same time, he noted that the five new stations of the Thessaloniki Metro extension to Kalamaria are expected to begin operations by the end of July, following the successful completion of the necessary tests and certifications. As he said, the metro’s operation has already contributed to a 15% reduction in traffic in the city center, and the extension is expected to further improve transportation conditions.
Mr. Dimas added that the first 10 kilometers of the Neapoli–Agios Nikolaos section of the Northern Road Axis of Crete (BOAK) are scheduled to be completed this summer.
When asked about the traffic problem in Attica, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport said that construction work on Metro Line 4 is progressing, which will provide significant solutions, while two road network projects are also underway:
The first concerns the Skaramanga Triple Interchange, a project with a budget of approximately 70 million euros, which is expected to be contracted in June and completed within three years.
The second concerns the improvement of the Metamorfosis Interchange on Attiki Odos, where two independent lanes connecting to the Athens–Lamia National Highway will be created, helping to reduce delays at that location.
Additionally, the minister referred to the renewal of the public transportation fleet in Athens and Thessaloniki through the Recovery and Resilience Facility, with new buses featuring anti-pollution technology that are fully accessible to all citizens.
When asked about the issue of infrastructure resilience in the face of the impacts of the climate crisis, Mr. Dimas made special mention of the projects to repair the damage caused by Storm Daniel in Thessaly and Central Greece, with a total budget of 1.3 billion euros, of which 500 million euros come from the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
In this regard, he said that the goal of restoring the road network at 1,007 locations is not merely to return the infrastructure to its previous state, but to create more resilient projects, with specifications capable of meeting future challenges and extreme weather events.
On the same topic, he added that in major road projects and on highways, the concession model has contributed to maintaining high standards of maintenance and safety.
“The state is systematically striving to intervene—in municipal, local, and provincial road networks, and thus even in areas that are not normally under its jurisdiction—to ensure we have much more resilient infrastructure that will serve the daily lives of citizens,” Mr. Dimas emphasized, noting that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is utilizing all available resources toward this goal.