Seven more lines of OASTH go to KTEL

They seem to have taken a deep breath at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport where, according to the information, the plenary session of the Audit Bureau is said to have approved a plan to extend the contract of the transport business concession for one year. The Urban Transport Organization of Attica (OASA), to KTEL.

Earlier, with two rulings in August and September, the Supreme Court rejected the draft contract on the grounds that it did not constitute an amendment to the existing contract but a direct referral.

The ministry came back with additional arguments, and in combination with the amendment it voted on in September, it was able, the information says, to obtain the approval of the Audit Bureau to extend the commissioning of the 60-line transmission project of KTEL for another year.

The discussion took place in the plenary session of the Board of Auditors on Monday and the decision is expected to be announced, according to the information, by Friday.

“Everyone can imagine what would happen in Athens if the Court of Auditors’ decision was negative. We had to find 300 buses at once to serve 60 bus lines, which is absolutely impossible,” says with satisfaction but also restraint, a ministry official, recommending in the same Time is waiting for the official announcement.

This decision also concerns Thessaloniki as a similar extension of the contracts under which the transport project for 31 intercity bus lines was awarded by OASTH to KTEL in Thessaloniki, Serres, Halkidiki and Kilkis is imminent.

Already, as Yiannis Toskas, Managing Director of Thessaloniki Transport Project Organization, reports on makthes.gr, OSETH is preparing a draft contract to extend the assignment of 31 bus lines to KTEL for another year and will submit them for approval by the middle of the year. November in the Audit Bureau. Current contracts expire at the end of 2022.

The two previous negative SAI decisions in the Attica case have concerned executives at OSETH and OASTH. However, there was optimism that the Supreme Court would give its approval in the case of Thessaloniki where there are some characteristics related to the basin.

In Athens, the transfer project is being implemented by the public OASA, while in Thessaloniki the state-owned OASTH is now liquidated, so it is operating under a deadline. Under this system, it could not even tender for the purchase of new buses, nor even hire drivers to take advantage of all available buses, with dozens of them remaining in warehouses.

Also, in the near future, there will be a redesign of the transport map of the urban complex in view of the operation of the metro.

Set another seven lines

According to the information, the draft contract that OSETH will submit for approval to the Audit Bureau, in addition to extending the allocation of 31 semi-urban bus lines, will provide for the allocation of seven more lines, for a period of one year.

According to the same information, these are lines 57 (Hortiatis Intersection – Aristotelous Horseshoe), 58 (Venizelou Street – Hortiatis Intersection), 64 (New Railway Station – Filiro), 45 (KTEL Makedonia – Mediterranean Cosmos), 28B (Papageorgiou Hospital – TS Efkarpia). Sklavenitis). Lines 70 and 71 are also scheduled to operate in July and August, starting from the new railway station and all the way to Ipanumi and Nea Michaniona beaches respectively.

These five bus lines, which will need approximately fifty additional buses, according to information, will be allocated to KTEL of Thessaloniki and Serres.