Χαιρετισμός του Γενικού Γραμματέα Δημοσίων Έργων κ. Στράτου Σιμόπουλου στη διοργάνωση «42nd Annual ASECAP Study & Information Days 2014» με θέμα:«Ensuring sustainability in times of dwindling traffic: The roll of tolling», που πραγματοποιήθηκε την Τετάρτη 28 Μαΐου 2014.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning

I am really glad to participate in theConference of the tolled motorways operators of Europe, organized in Athens, especially inthis period that the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks triesto:

-develop the motorways network in order toachieve road safety, driving comfort and improvement of accessibility for itscitizens,   and through this

-contribute to regional development, theoverall upgrading of the state structures and the reduction of the unemploymentthat scourges (torments) especially our young people.

Concerning the development of our motorwaysnetwork:

In Greece for many years we implementa program of upgrading the major road axes into motorways. These axes belong tothe core Trans- European Road Network and have a total length of about 2300 km.

I am sure you all know that we havecompleted or we are about to complete the upgrading into motorways of the twomain road axes of the country, having a total length of 1,500 km, namely:

-the eastern South to North axis, calledPATHE, leading to our Balkan neighbors, and

-the West to East road axis, the EgnatiaMotorway, leading to Turkeyto the east and to Europe to the west.

In parallel, since 2007, we have startedthe completion of the motorways network of the country, by constructing 750more km of motorways, through five Concession contracts.

We have chosen to implement these projectswith concession contracts , based on our previous experience of the successfulconcession projects of Rion-Antirion Bridge , Attiki Odos and the Athens International Airport.

These five motorway concession projects aretypical concessions, including design, construction , operation and maintenanceof the asset for a long period of 30 years.

However, in 2010, these concessions werestruck by the financial crisis which hit the country and resulted to:

-the reduction of the GDP by more than 25%(in comparison to year 2008); with the great increase  of the unemployment to 30%

-the sharp decrease of private income;

-the increase of the cost of fuels andcommodities

These developments affected negatively andin a multiplying way the traffic on the road network of the country. The dropof traffic and the resulting real and forecasted future contraction of theconcession motorways revenue was more than 50%.

This reduction of revenues created afinancial gap during the construction period of the concession projects and theforecasted incapability for the repayment of the loans during the operatingperiod. Thus the projects were judged not to be viable, and the Banks stoppedfinancing four of them, in 2010. The Construction Joint Ventures continued fora short period of time (with a lower construction pace) but finally, in 2011,they suspended all construction activities and practically dissolved theconstruction sites.

The financial gap was estimated to be verybig, unbearable by the Concessionaires alone who, under the circumstances ofthe projects and the country, could not find ways to continue the financing oftheir concessions.

The lending Banks were not willing tofinance anymore these projects, and those who would do it were asking forconsiderably higher margins, in order to cover the greater risk of the projectsand that of the country (sovereign risk). In addition the interest rate swapsof the projects had to be restructured. These two parameters reducedconsiderably the available funds of the Banks and increased dramatically thecost of financing.

Considerable problems were also created by:the refusal of motorways users to pay the tolls in certain cases of tollstations; deviating away from the toll stations, by exiting the motorway to theservice road before the toll station and re-entering after it; and by theinability of the Concessionaires to raise the toll rates as foreseen in theircontracts, due to social reactions. These events created more insecurity anddistrust to both the Concessionaires and the Banks.

In addition to all above