Crete and Western Greece in the spotlight of Greece’s new generation projects

Crete and Western Greece are emerging as the epicentres of the country’s new major projects. The completion of Athens-Thessaloniki motorway and railway axes shifted the priorities towards the creation of new infrastructure in the regions of Western Greece and Crete.

Western Greece

In Western Greece, 1bn euros are intended for large-scale and significant projects with the railway being in the spotlight as Kiato-Aeghio (which also serves partially the region of Peloponnese), Aeghio-Rio and Rio-Patras Port are next in the queue to be implemented.

The target is for the city and the port of Patras to be connected with the country’s modern, electrified railway network by 2022. The cost of the above-mentioned works is about 400-450mio euros, while there is no definite solution, for the time being, regarding the last section of the line. All projects have secured funding from NSRF 2014-2020.

Two very important motorway projects are also in the pipeline for Western Greece. The first is the 75-km-long Patra-Pyrgos Motorway which has also been included in NSRF with 350mio euros. Its construction is estimated to start in 2018. The second one is the completion of the 48-km-long Aktio-Amvrakia Motorway, which is a Phasing Project.

For Aktio-Amvrakia, final decisions are anticipated concerning the completion of the project by 2021, at the latest. The cost of the works that will wrap up the delayed project, reaches 200mio euros.

Crete

In Crete, the 2 flagship projects, with a staggering budget of 1.8bn euros, are Crete’s Northern Motorway Axis (aka VOAK), extending from Chania to Aghios Nikolaos, and the “mature” concession project for the construction of a new International Airport in Kastelli area, outside Heraklion city.

VOAK Motorway’s cost is estimated to reach approximately 1.3bn euros while the tender for the assignment of the contractor, using the concession method, is expected towards the end of 2018 allowing the project’s construction phase to commence in 2020.

The project for the construction and concession of the new International Airport in Kastelli, Heraklion is now very close to the final signatures. The cost is roughly 500mio euros and is expected to transform a large area of Heraklion Prefecture, providing new growth opportunities for tourism and services.

The creation of whole new infrastructure is the case in Crete as the island really suffers from outdated infrastructure that cannot meet the ever-increasing demand of the local communities. On the contrary, the projects in Western Greece, are mainly about supplementary infrastructure both for motorways and railways.

In this article, the great plan for Sea2Sea has not been included yet; i.e. the railway project connecting Greece and Bulgaria, which, for the Greek part concerns the so-called “Eastern Railway Egnatia”. Sea2Sea, at least for now, is considered to be a project for the relatively distant future.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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