ATHENS: Construction of a new line for the Athens subway network, halted for months, has damaged 20 buildings in one of the Greek capital’s oldest districts, officials said on Monday.

“Safety is a non-negotiable priority for the state and for everyone involved in the project,” Transport Minister Christos Dimas told reporters after a meeting on the project.

No building needs to be evacuated and the contractors constructing the project will cover expenses for repair works at each building in the central district of Kypseli, he added.

“The process now covers all 20 buildings with recorded damage,” said Christos Fafoutis, the CEO of Elliniko Metro, the state company supervising the project. The Monday meeting followed a protest by hundreds of residents on Oct 3.

The residents of Kypseli, a central Athens district where some buildings are over a century old, had originally reported cracks and other damage to their property beginning in March. Construction work halted on May 8 and has not resumed since.

Elliniko Metro has said that boring in Kypseli found “unforeseeable and undetectable conditions identified in weak geological subsoil”.

The Athens town hall and residents had requested written guarantees regarding the structural adequacy of the buildings and an independent public body to certify that these buildings are structurally sound, Mayor Haris Doukas said in July. “Once the works have been completed, the buildings will be safer than they were before,” said Giorgos Stasinos, head of the Technical Chamber of Greece.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2026