ECONOMY
Over 25,000 students attended TAP's Road Safety Seminars
Baku, March 3, AZERTAC
The Road Safety Seminars programme, an initiative sponsored by the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP AG) since May 2016, has been successfully concluded, according to TAP.
The programme, addressing elementary and high-school students, was organised and implemented by the Hellenic Institute of Transport (ΙΜΕΤ/ΕΚΕΤΑ) at the Northern Greek Prefectures traversed by the pipeline; Western Macedonia, Central Macedonia and Eastern Macedonia-Thrace.
The seminars were delivered by 36 competent instructors and were overall attended by:
more than 25,000 children and teenagers
and 56 educators
from 142 elementary schools and 60 high-schools in 66 and 31 communities, respectively
The Road Safety seminars programme was conducted by IMET transportation engineers and expert educators with the use of specialised educational material for every age group, addressing students located in the communities alongside the routing of the pipeline. As put by the IMET/EKETA Research Director, Dr Georgia Ayfantopoulou: "Collaboration with TAP offered us the opportunity to extensively disseminate the Institute’s expertise by implementing a targeted educational practice, with a direct result to society." The programme was implemented in two phases:
phase I [May-October 2016]: seminars attended solely by elementary school pupils
phase II [September 2016-February 2017]: participation from both elementary school pupils and students
TAP supported the project in the context of honouring its commitment to comply with internationally recognised health and safety standards, undertaking educational initiatives with regard to safety-related behaviour, and promoting best practices. Therefore, smaller children were educated on core safety rules (using the road network as pedestrians, cyclists or passengers), while adolescents, i.e. future drivers, were instructed on relevant rules and regulations.
In the context of the programme’s implementation, regional and municipal authorities were also informed about its content and targets, their representatives responding very positively and participating actively in the proceedings. Mr Anargyros Patakakis, Deputy Head for the Drama prefectural unit of the Eastern-Macedonia and Thrace Prefecture, attended one of the last seminars delivered to sophomore students of the 2nd Lyceum in Drama. Upon the seminar’s conclusion, Mr. Patakakis discussed proceedings with representatives of both IMET and TAP, expressing his content about the implementation of such initiatives aiming to raise awareness on road safety among school children.
As for the TAP project’s commitment to supporting corporate social responsibility actions with a significant footprint on local societies and putting safety first, its Country Manager for Greece, Mr Rikard Scoufias, noted: "Safety constitutes TAP’s absolute priority, as does the development of respect-based relations with local communities. In that sense, our choice to contribute to IMET’s efforts in improving local youths’ knowledge on road safety issues, was anything but random."
TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The approximately 878 km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.
TAP’s routing can facilitate gas supply to several South Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others. TAP’s landfall in Italy provides multiple opportunities for further transport of Caspian natural gas to some of the largest European markets such as Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland and Austria.
TAP will promote economic development and job creation along the pipeline route; it will also be a major source of foreign direct investment. With first gas sales to Georgia and Turkey targeted for late 2018, first deliveries to Europe will follow around early 2020.
TAP’s shareholding is comprised of BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%).