Mitsotakis tours N. Greece projects, as election looms in 2023

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis continued a tour of northern Greece on Monday, with his itinerary closely resembling a pre-election campaign, as general elections are due in the first half of 2023.

Among others, he said a major highway overpass on Thessaloniki’s ring road, scheduled for completion in 2026, will be inaugurated by a New Democracy (ND) government, signaling his confidence that the ruling party he heads will win the upcoming battle at the ballot box.

The contract for the project was signed on Monday, with a construction budget set at 373.2 million euros, was awarded to the preferred bid submitted by a consortium comprised of Avax and Mytileneos Group, which will also maintain the infrastructure for another 26 years. He also referred to a first-ever project of this size implemented through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.

Earlier, Mitsotakis toured the new museum at the Royal Macedonian Tombs of Aigai, at the iconic Vergina site, along with a reconstructed bridge over the Aliakmonas River.

Referring to progress of works for the long-delayed inaugural metro line in Thessaloniki, Mitsotakis said the city – among the few urban areas in the EU with a population of more than one million residents without a metro – will have both a new subway and its subterranean antiquities in place by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.