Two days after nine people were killed in a pileup on a notorious section of the Athens-to-Thessaloniki highway, Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias yesterday blasted critics who accused the government of doing little to improve road conditions.

“It is inconceivable they should demand that work that was not carried out over 20 years should be completed within 15 months,” said Souflias, referring to repeated failed attempts to upgrade the stretch of road that curves around the Maliakos Gulf, north of Athens.

Saturday’s deaths took the number killed there this year to 25, while well over 100 people have died since 2000 on that section of the highway, which in most parts has a single lane in each direction and no median strip.

Souflias said that by-passes in the areas of Aghios Constantinos and Kammena Vourla, along with other road improvements, would be completed by 2008.