Deputy Shipping

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is visiting Kalymnos on Wednesday to inaugurate the Naval Academy on the southeastern Aegean island.

Tsipras is scheduled to meet with Kalymnos Mayor Ioannis Galouzis, before speaking at the opening ceremony of academy.

A passenger ferry moored at Piraeus that tilted 7 degrees on Friday due to the uneven distribution of weight is gradually being restored to its upward position, Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios said on Friday.

Greece's Alpha Bank has rescinded its decision to shut down its branches on the remote islands of Kassos, Lipsoi and Tilos, a Shipping Ministry statement said on Tuesday, according to the state-run ANA-MPA news agency.

Alpha Bank has unexpectedly decided to shut its branches on the islands of Tilos, Kasos and Lipsoi, forcing local residents to travel by boat to another island to get their banking done, their mayors said on Tuesday, according to the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios said on Friday that the environmental health of the Saronic Gulf off Athens has improved since last year. 

Speaking to Parliament during a discussion about the ecological consequences of the oil spill after the Agia Zoni II tanker sank off Salamina in September, he said the "situation is better than it was a year earlier."

Local authorities and residents on the island of Symi in the Dodecanese on Tuesday were taking stock of the damage wreaked by heavy rainfall the night before.

The downpour caused serious damage to infrastructure as well as to homes and businesses on the island.

A man sits in the sun at Freattyda beach on Thursday, close to Piraeus port, as Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios and Piraeus Mayor Yiannis Moralis inspect the wider area after it was cleaned up by a private company and made available to the public.

The International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC) will be opening an office in Greece for the first time, Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios announced on Thursday, saying the agency will address claims from businesses that incurred losses as a result of the recent Agia Zoni II oil spill.

It will take another 20 to 30 days to clean up most of the oil that has seeped from a sunken tanker to sully the coasts of Salamina and southern Athens, Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios said on Monday morning.

Deputy Shipping Minister Nektarios Santorinios says there are no plans to create infrastructure or settle people on uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea as part of the government's plans to develop them.