Infrastructure Min Staikouras attends Aktio-Amvrakia highway inauguration

The new Aktio-Amvrakia highway shortens travel time, raises drivers' safety, and provides a development impetus to the area, Infrastructure & Transport Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday, during the inauguration of the project in western Greece attended by the prime minister.

The 49-km section of motorway links Ionia Odos highway with the Aktio airport, the underwater tunnel, the port of Igoumenitsa and the Lefkada island junction, bypassing Amfilochia, he said. As the prime minister mentioned earlier, the highway reduces travel time to Lefkada and Preveza by 45 minutes.

Staikouras also referred to the other major infrastructure works going on in Greece, including a section of E65 in Central Greece (expected to finish before Greek Easter), and the Thessaloniki Metro (to be handed over in November 2024).

Also speaking at the event were Deputy Infrastructure and Transport Minister Nikos Tachiaos, Western Greece Regional Governor Nektarios Farmakis, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira, and President and CEO of Mytilineos Energy & Metals Evangelos Mytilineos, whose subsidiary Metka is responsible for completing the project "after a series of issues haunting it for over a decade". Mytilineos also added that it was "a technical project with extraordinary difficulties" but it is now being turned over ahead of the deadline and under very high-quality standards.