The Court of Auditors has completed the pre-contractual audit of the legality of the Attiki Odos concession contract, which paves the way for the contract award of the project.

The Court of Audit received the file from TAIPED on July 5 and, within a short period of time, checked and gave its approval.

The quick approval by the Supreme Court reportedly serves the Hellenic Investment Fund's goal of financial closure of the concession contract, possibly by the end of the year.

It will be recalled that GEK TERNA bid in September 2023 in the tender for the 25-year operation, financing, maintenance, and exploitation of the motorway, submitting a bid of €3.27 billion.

The contract with the current concession scheme expires in October 2024, and thereafter, Attiki Odos will be managed by the public sector until GEK TERNA takes over the project.

Attiki Odos is a modern motorway with a length of about 70 km, built in the 1990s under the concession scheme. It is the regional road axis of the wider metropolitan area of Athens and part of the backbone of the road network of the Prefecture of Attica. It is a suburban road network and motorway, with two or three lanes of traffic and one emergency lane (LEA) in each direction. In some sections in the middle of the motorway, in a specially designed area, there is a suburban railway, which is not part of the Attiki Odos concession.

Furthermore, the Attiki Odos motorway is the link of the PATHE road axis (Patras-Athens-TThessaloniki-Evzoni), since it connects the Athens-LLamia motorway with the Athens-CCorinth motorway, bypassing the centre of Athens.

The motorway has controlled access and consists of two vertical, intersecting sections: the Elefsina-Stavros-Spata Free Avenue, approximately 52 km long, and the West Regional Avenue of Ymittos, approximately 13 km long. The Attiki Odos motorway also includes a section of the West Regional Avenue of Egaleo, approximately 5 km long.