A team of Korean technocrats has visited Tymbaki again in order to inspect the seafront and the wider area in which they are planning to build the new transhipment harbour of the south.
The Korean delegation, composed of two engineers and two economists, had already spent two days in mainland Greece meeting various members of the Ministry of Mercantile Marine. They arrived in Tymbaki accompanied by Heraklion Port Organisation staff and examined the areas where the huge investment is to be made. They then met the Nomarch of Heraklion Mrs Vangelio Schinaraki before departing later that afternoon.
It is worth noting that the Koreans were surprised to hear that the new harbour is intended to cover traffic of 2 million containers a year, an amount that sounds enormous to Greeks but small to them, remarking, “But why don’t you use Heraklion port for that rather than building a new one here?”
Meanwhile, protests by local residents and public bodies in Tymbaki are intensifying. They are opposed to the project under current plans, arguing that it will have destructive consequences for the area.
As the dissenting voices say, no port intended solely for container ships has anything to offer the Tymbaki area. Instead of benefiting the area now that it is developing in the farming and tourism sectors, the project will destroy it. Today tourists come from the urban areas where they are staying to visit our unspoilt landscape and clean sea. We, on the other hand, are trying to rip all this apart and offer them an “industrialized” holiday resort in the south as well.