Greek Environment and Public Works Minister Vasso Papandreou told reporters that in a new program aimed at improving Athens’ aesthetic and quality of life, Greece is to spend around 460 million euros ($492.5 million) to “embellish and fit out” Athens before the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
Papandreou said, “it’s the most encompassing program every presented”.
Twenty one studies have already been executed and another 21 are under completion, including the renovation of Athens’ old city centre by turning the town’s scattered archaeological sites into a single, unified pedestrian area by renovating facades and removing giant advertising banners and ugly television antennae from apartment block rooftops.
Also, trees and bushes will be planted along avenues and to spruce up Athens’ largely neglected parks.
About 820,000 trees and 14 million bushes are to be planted on a surface of 400 hectares (988 acres) said Papandreou.
Athens mayor Dora Bakoyianni stressed the need to make the city more accessible to the disabled.
She also urged the minister to grapple with the city’s garbage problem. Bakoyianni said, “Athens risks finding itself a hostage of its own garbage”.
