Declaring the site of the former Athens airport at Hellinikon an archaeological site will not affect the investment in any way, Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas said on Monday during a visit to Crete.
The Culture Ministry’s General Directorate for Antiquities and Cultural Heritage sent a letter last week to several government departments to inform them that it plans to declare the area an archaeological site.
“Such a declaration does not affect anything in the investment. The center of Athens is a declared archaeological site but this hasn’t stopped neither construction activity nor city life,” Baltas said. “All this declaration means is that there is an institutional acknowledgement that antiquities have been found in the wider area, therefore there must be a systematic monitoring by the Archaeological Service of all the projects within the defined area.”
He also said the investors know about this issue and the two sides are in contact.
The country’s privatization fund (HRADF) and a consortium led by Lamda Development signed an updated memorandum of understanding a few months back for the development of the 6.2 million square meters coastal front site in southern Athens.
Source: ANA-MPA
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