Although he’s confident that part of the housing shortage at the Athens 2004 Summer Games has been solved, Denis Oswald, the IOC’s chief overseer for Athens, is concerned about traffic and transportation problems.
At a business conference Tuesday Oswald said, “it is vital that all the elements that constitute the lifeblood of the country work together, putting aside any quarrels and differences of opinion and cooperate in a coordinated matter. In my view this is a civic duty and obligation toward the nation”.
Adding to problems plaguing the Greek capital, on Tuesday Greece’s highest administrative court blocked construction of one of five medial villages. The temporary injunction stops construction of a village to house about 1,600 journalists. It will remain in effect until May 17 when the court hears a lawsuit.
Oswald said, “I cannot hide the fact that the sports world still has a number of concerns. These concerns have nothing to do with Greece’s ability to stage the Olympic Games, rather the difficulty of doing so in the limited amount of time left before August 2004”.
The IOC said it needs nearly 3,000 more rooms for the Olympic and sports federation officials, sponsors and others. The IOC has already been given 13,000 rooms – or 80 per cent of the existing rooms – and 3,000 cabins abroad cruise ships.
Oswald said plans for new hotels and extensions would cover 1,400 of the rooms, while increasing the number of bookings already made by the organizing committee could make up the rest.
Athens is seeking alternatives to accommodate hundreds of thousands of tourists who may want to travel to Athens for the Olympics. The government has said there are no plans to build hotels in the Athens area.
Athens Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the government is preparing legislation allowing Athenians to house visitors in their homes. Other plans include package tours that place fans in resorts and bring them to Athens for Olympic events.
Oswald described traffic congestion in Athens as a “headache for Olympic organizers and the IOC”. The city has a population of five million people driving two million cars. He said the problem has been heightened by a government decision to cancel key highway expansions.
In response to Oswald, Venizelos said, “we are going to organize monumental Games and present rejuvenated Olympics to the world. Everything is under control”.
He stressed that the Games from today to opening day will make Greece’s gross domestic product increase by 0.5 per cent. The value will rise to 1.4 per cent during the Games.
He said, “for us, preparing the Olympics means modernizing our country. The advantages for Greece will be long-lasting”.
