ATHENS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The 8 billion euros (9.6 billion US dollars) redevelopment project of Athens' former airport Hellinikon has moved a step closer to reality in 2018, media reported Tuesday.
The draft presidential decree on the investment plan was submitted for approval to the Council of State, Greece's supreme administrative court, Greek news agency AMNA reported.
"Due to the importance of the plan, the court's president Nikolaos Sakellarios forwarded it straight to the plenum for discussion," the report said.
Authorities and experts consider the plan to create a metropolitan park and develop real estate on the seaside site of the former airport as a key plan to help restore growth in the ailing economy.
The airport closed before the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
According to a survey by the Athens-based Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, the redevelopment of derelict buildings and their surroundings into a park and residential area would create 70,000 jobs and boost Greek GDP by some 1.5 percent over the next two decades.
Greek government officials have expressed confidence that the final stages of the process in the Council of State will roll out quickly and by June 2018, bulldozers will start digging at the site.
"Works will begin by summer 2018. An emblematic investment begins, and it will not be the only one," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tweeted recently.
