Athens metro Line 4 tender to be issued early next year

After a series of delays, the tender for the construction of Line 4 of the Athens metro is expected to be issued early next year.

The extension of the capital’s metro network has been long anticipated by residents of the densely populated areas of Galatsi, Kypseli, Kaisariani and Zografou.

Some 1.5 billion euros, about a quarter of the total budget for the project, will come from European structural funding, with the remainder being covered by European Investment Bank loans.

The project had been delayed for two reasons. Firstly because feasibility studies regarding the area between Evangelismos and Goudi took time to complete. And secondly because the Transport Ministry had been insisting for several months that the project take the form of a public-private partnership so that the state funding earmarked for its construction could be channelled elsewhere; however that idea had the support of neither the Economy Ministry nor the EIB.