The initiatives that will make the cities “green”, resilient and “smart”, as required by the modern political view, were mentioned by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Mr. George Karagiannis, speaking at the Conference of the Democritus University of Thrace on : “Sustainable and Safe Cities”.
As Mr. Karagiannis stressed “in each of these issues, the government has taken steps forward” creating the conditions for “better and more public transport, reducing car use and renewing the fleet with new less polluting vehicles, increasing micro-mobility and use of alternative means of transport “.
He referred to the works that have started for the new Metro Line 4 in Athens as well as to the extension of Line 3 to Piraeus that is being delivered, while the extensions to the western suburbs are being launched, adding that “at the same time the Thessaloniki Metro is becoming a reality. , essentially changing the daily life of the city “.
At the same time, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is moving forward, as Mr. Karagiannis noted, “the largest supply of buses in the European Union, many of which are electric or low-pollution through the Recovery Fund”.
Intervention is also made in the area of bicycle lanes in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and the Association of Greek Transport Specialists with the aim of reviewing the technical instructions which will unlock the development of the network.
“As you all understand, we are creating an overall framework aimed at changing the transport mix in large urban centers,” said Mr. Karagiannis.
He then referred to the major issue of road safety “that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had and has high on his agenda”.
He characteristically said that “sustainability without safety is impossible” and “this conceptual connection was crucial for the elaboration of the National Strategic Road Safety Plan”.
Mr. Karagiannis noted that “despite the decrease in road accidents over the last decade, the country continues to be above the European average of deaths and accidents, while, at the same time, in urban and semi-urban areas there has been no corresponding reduction in casualties – pedestrians “.
The plan outlines actions, schedules and quantitative targets to reduce the number of dead and seriously injured in road accidents by 50% by 2030, while as the Undersecretary of Infrastructure underlined “we even adopt the ambitious target for zero dead on the asphalt by 2050” .
Interventions of 775 million euros exclusively for road safety
In addition, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has designed a program specifically for road safety, which concerns all regions of the country, both in its national and provincial network.
According to Mr. Karagiannis, “the PEVOA program now amounts to 675 million and a large amount, about 1/3, will be distributed by the Ministry of Interior to Municipalities and Regions for localized road safety projects”.
It is characteristic that 15,000 km of road sections have been examined, of which 4,200 km belong to the national network and 10,800 km to the regional network.
“From the studies prepared by Egnatia, more than 7,000 dangerous points were scattered in 2,500 km of the road network and in 80 road axes in mainland and island Greece” as stressed by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.
The planning of the interventions and the determination of the cost was done by Region and indicatively, Mr. Karagiannis stated that “the amount of the program corresponding to the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace amounts to 45.6 million euros”.
However, the concern for road safety does not stop here, as, at the same time, road safety improvement projects are “running” in parts of the country where serious issues have been identified.
“In Crete, along the existing VOAK, projects with a budget of 35 million euros are in the phase of auction, execution or receipt. In Patras – Pyrgos we proceeded with a road safety project of 30 million euros until the completion of the large project and in Macedonia we proceeded with 2 “projects with a total budget of 40 million euros, in Potidea and Thermi – Galatista” noted Mr. Karagiannis.
In closing, Mr. Karagiannis underlined: “There is no one left and we are determined to do everything possible to drastically reduce losses. the green transition “.
Source: Capital
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