ATHENS: After years of debate, Greece has approved plans to build a Formula One track near the western port of Patras, officials said on Wednesday.

“It has taken many years to reach this point,” the head of the company set up to manage the project, former Patras mayor Evangelos Floratos, told Ta Nea daily after it was included in government development plans.

The project has an estimated cost of 94 billion euros ($135 billion) and will be partly subsidised by the Greek state.

The track, designed to accommodate Formula One races as well as motorbike and cart events, will be built near the town of Farres, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Patras.

Its completion will require three years, reports said.

“The track will help support development, Western Greece stands to gain a great deal,” regional governor Apostolos Katsifaras told the daily.

Successive Greek governments have debated building a Formula One track for decades, eyeing the thousands of high-income spectators that follow the event worldwide.

Environmental concerns and local opposition had halted such plans until now.