Transport Minister Kostas A. Karamanlis on Thursday announced the construction of a new metro station in the bohemian district of Exarchia in central Athens.

The new station, set to be located on Exarchia Square, is part of the wider 1.5 billion euro project to build a fourth line for the Greek capital’s metro system.

“We do not have the right to turn our back on any area of Athens without giving it a proper chance of development,” Karamanlis told a parliamentary committee on production and trade on Thursday. 

“Citizens have a right to a better standard of living, and the government has the obligation to not abandon any district to the twilight of ghettoization, and the darkness of ideological obsession,” he said.

Work on the Exarchia station is expected to begin in the next three months, Karamanlis said, while urging all political parties to throw their weight behind the project.

Activists have criticized the idea of a metro station in Exarchia – the site of frequent protests by left-wing protesters – out of gentrification concerns. 

This article was first published on ekathimerini.com