The Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Nikos Tachiaos took part on Thursday evening in the television program «On Politics» on NaftemporikiTV, referring mainly to the situation in Kypseli after the subsidence caused by the excavation of the tunnel of Line 4 of the Athens Metro.
Responding to the statements made by Alexis Tsipras during his visit to Kypseli, the deputy minister clarified that he attributed to him words he never said.
«I never said that I would not put my family in these houses. I was asked whether I would rent one of these houses now and I answered no. I cannot deceive people. The true meaning of empathy is to show people that you understand and share their concern», he said.
Mr. Tachiaos said he was astonished by «the man's audacity», noting: «The man who told a fire victim in Mati that if I had given you 2,000 euros you would have squandered them, this man is giving lessons in empathy. This is not "rebranding", this is reproduction of audacity».
He also commented that Mr. Tsipras's proposal for the State to pay for housing and compensation shows «absolute ignorance of the issue», since, as he explained, the obligation for restoration lies with the contractor, based on a contract whose draft was in fact drawn up under the SYRIZA government, the project was tendered under SYRIZA, and the route of Line 4, even the depths at which the tunnel passes, were designed then.
«For someone to cultivate a deficit of trust is a huge mistake and is not a contribution to the real problem», he stressed, while clarifying: «Obviously I cannot treat Mr. Tsipras as a quasi-engineer who carried out an inspection».
«There is no danger for the residents - They will not pay a single euro for the repairs»
Asked directly whether the residents who remain in their apartments are in danger, Mr. Tachiaos was categorical: «No, they are not in danger. I have the assurance of the engineers».
He clarified that he himself, as a surveying engineer, does not have the expertise of a structural engineer and does not express a personal opinion, «just as any metallurgist who goes there and sells knowledge he does not have cannot have an opinion».
The judgment on what exactly is happening and what must be done belongs to the specialized engineers who are on the project and the experts preparing the independent expert report that Elliniko Metro has assigned to the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), whom, as the president of TEE committed, he has selected from among very good structural engineers. This expert report will also determine the extent of the interventions in each building.
He repeated the commitment that all damage will be repaired so that the load-bearing capacity of the buildings is restored and the buildings are brought into better condition than the one they were in before the tunnel boring machine passed through, at the contractor's expense, as provided for by the contract. «The residents will not pay a single euro», he said characteristically.
As regards timing, Mr. Tachiaos rejected the image of «snail's pace» conveyed by the journalists: «Studies for buildings from 1930 or 1950 take their time, because the point is not for the cracks to be closed and hidden, as the residents themselves very rightly say, but for intervention to be carried out in depth, with specific methods, so that the load-bearing capacity of the buildings is strengthened», he stressed.
At the same time, he noted that issues have been recorded in which intervention is carried out immediately, such as the removal of plaster and protruding elements which in fact showed pathology long before the tunnel boring machine passed and which bear a possible burden from the subsidence.
The three critical issues for restoration and restart
The deputy minister described the issue as three distinct questions for which the relevant preparatory work is being carried out:
The first is the restoration of the buildings above the area where the tunnel has already been constructed and no subsidence phenomena are observed. There, work can begin depending on the seriousness of each case, independently of the time when excavation restarts.
The second concerns the apartment buildings above the head of the tunnel boring machine, where, in order to ensure that they do not suffer further damage, the vulnerability studies must be completed and any support measures taken before any restart, so that restoration can take place after the machine is removed.
The third question is how the buildings that the tunnel boring machine will encounter next will not face the same problems.
Confidence in Elliniko Metro, good faith toward the Municipality
«We have confidence in a state company, Elliniko Metro, a public enterprise that knows how to solve such problems and where there is no one thinking of deceiving people and telling them to remain in a house that has a problem for their safety. Such persons do not exist either in the contractor or anywhere in the ecosystem of the people involved with the metro», Mr. Tachiaos said.
Regarding the extraordinary municipal council meeting of the previous week, the deputy minister recalled that he himself was also present and spoke openly. He made it clear that he chooses not to make the discussion political, although, as he said, he discerns ulterior motives: «I am making a great effort. I have said it, I am not going to "bite" and I will not "bite". We will not enter into political confrontation.
I recognize in the mayor, in good faith, that he is here to mediate in the relationship with these residents. How he will do that is his own right. In any case, I am not going to make the issue of Kypseli a political issue by confronting those who have so far appeared in the case.
What concerns me are the other hundred, two hundred families, the children who indeed live in houses with cracks, where the doors do not open or the windows do not close. If we make the issue political, it will fester to the detriment of these people. I am not going to "bite"», he said, clarifying that «Mr. Tsipras is a different case».
Closing the interview, the deputy minister reiterated the government's commitment to Line 4, to «the biggest project currently being carried out in Attica, a project that will seriously change neighborhoods of Athens and will bring a technology that we Thessalonians are already experiencing and enjoying».