Christos Spirtzis

Construction works at the tunnels of Thessaloniki’s unfinished metro resumed on March 28 after four years of inaction due to legal and financial problems, the Infrastructure ministry announced.

Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis inaugurated the operation of the first Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) named “Hercules” at the main section of the tunnels.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accompanied by nine ministers will visit Israel on Wednesday to participate in a broad bilateral meeting between Greece and Israel aiming at the promotion of the two countries’ cooperation.

The new terminal of Sitia airport “Vitsentzos Kornaros” on Crete will be inaugurated on Wednesday, Jan. 13.

Infrastructures, Transport and Networks Minister Christos Spirtzis will be present at the inauguration ceremony which is scheduled to take place at 12:00. Representatives of the Lasithi region will also attend the ceremony.

Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis told Praktorio 104.9 FM that works for the Thessaloniki metro that had been interrupted will resume in the first ten days of 2016.

“We estimate that the works will resume in the first ten days of January, 2016,” he said.

The leftist Greek government appears startled by developments at the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) where the construction of a fence has caused an overwhelming number of refugees and economic immigrants to gather.

Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis legislated free transport for unemployed people and to give amnesty for public transport fines incurred from July 2, 2010, through to July 2, 2015, provided they can prove that they were unemployed at the time the fine was incurred.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will visit Israel and Palestine to hold bilateral talks and strengthen Greece’s mediatory role in the region at a ver crucial time for the Middle East.

The public broadcaster ERT will be the global digital provider, said Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis to ERT1 TV channel.

He said that “the state will offer a global range transmitter in order to cover the needs for nationwide coverage and to reach the Greeks abroad.”

The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) is readying its new government following the party’s recent election triumph – for the second time this year after its first election win on January 25.

Former Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) prime minister Alexis Tsipras has been in Thessaloniki since early Sunday morning ahead of a speech he is due to give at the 80th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair (TIF) in the evening. He was greeted at the Macedonian airport with limousines that transferred him and his associates to the TIF’s facilities.