The future of Greece’s five biggest highway projects is at stake because of funding shortfalls, daily Kathimerini writes. The paper quotes recent reports, adding that most of them are already two years behind schedule.
Works have stopped at several construction sites on the E65 road, which is designed to connect the Athens-Thessaloniki national road to the Egnatia Highway in northern Greece.
Construction of the Ionian Highway, from Antirio to Ioannina in western Greece, is dogged by similar problems, reports said. The 44 banks backing the motorway projects have turned off the funding tap in recent months in protest at allegedly low interest rates. Meanwhile, the consortiums involved in the projects are accusing the state of failing to pay some 25 million euros in VAT returns. Officials representing the consortiums in question have warned that unless a solution is reached by Easter, construction work on most sites will come to a halt.
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