Mytilineos: Great challenges lie ahead for construction companies

METKA of the Mytilineos Group undertook the contract for the 32 km long and 150 million euro road construction project Aktio - Amvrakia in 2020 and despite the difficulties due to the terrain, delivered the road on time.

At the ceremony held yesterday for the delivery of the project, the head of Mytilineos, Mr. Evangelos Mytilineos, made a historical review for METKA with a personal reference to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was present at the inauguration of the road, noting the following:

"METKA left Greece 15 years ago unable to compete with other companies for reasons we already know. During this period, METKA successfully executed 19 major projects in 10 foreign countries, the contract value of which exceeded 4 billion euros.  When Kyriakos Mitsotakis became Prime Minister, he urged me to transfer human and financial resources from abroad to Greece so that we too could help modernise the infrastructure, personally guaranteeing absolute transparency in the public works procedures. I followed his encouragement and I hope he has no regrets being here today and seeing difficult projects being delivered on time and at a completely controlled cost".

Mytilineos also referred to the big challenge ahead for construction companies. As he stressed: "EUR 15 billion worth of projects have already been awarded with minimal delays compared to other years. The number is unbelievable for a country like Greece. It is an incredible feat for a country like Greece. How this backlog of projects will be executed. All of us, including the local communities, must help in this effort, as I must admit has happened with the Aktion - Amvrakia project. But we developers must also stop seeing the job as a contracting job but as a major business activity, now that the majority of projects will be private, PPPs and concessions." 

The 49 km long Aktio - Amvrakia project was put out to tender 16 years ago. It was contracted to be executed at a large discount by construction companies that do not exist today (AEGEK, Ionios). By 2015 no progress had been made. At that time, Aktor was entrusted with the construction of the first 17 km of the project, a task which the technical company completed, delivering the section from the Preveza submarine tunnel to Vonitsa in 2019. METKA, the construction arm of the Mytilineos Group, was contracted to complete the remaining 32 km in 2020.