Greece has formally launched a public tender for 1,000 AI-powered fixed traffic cameras to be deployed across its road network, more than 16 months after the initiative was first announced. The procurement, overseen by the Ministry of Digital Governance, carries a total budget of €88.11 million including VAT and an option right, with a contract duration of six years. The rollout is set to begin in Athens before expanding to other urban centres across the country.
A Long-Delayed Tender Finally Gets Off the Ground
The cameras are designed to detect a range of violations including red-light infractions, speeding, and illegal use of bus lanes. Footage will be transmitted in real time via mobile networks to Hellenic Police information systems, where penalty notices will be automatically processed and issued. The scope extends beyond hardware: the contract also covers software development, staff training, integration with existing enforcement systems, and five years of maintenance and technical support.
The tender is positioned as a foundational component of the planned “Unified National System for Digital Recording and Management of Violations,” a centralised platform intended to consolidate all camera-generated data across the country. That backend system, procured separately through Information Society S.A., has itself faced legal challenges. A contractor has yet to be formally appointed for the €10.3 million infrastructure project, leaving that element of the broader enforcement architecture in limbo.
As Kurrant previously reported, Greece activated enforcement operations in January 2026 under a wider €93.8 million road safety programme, with eight pilot AI cameras already operational at high-risk intersections across Athens. The current 1,000-camera tender represents the next major procurement phase within that programme.
How the Cameras Will Work
The new fixed units will monitor between two and four traffic lanes each and will incorporate automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) enhanced with AI algorithms capable of identifying vehicle make, model, and colour. The system is designed to detect violations without requiring human intervention and will cross-reference plates in real time against national and European databases, including the Schengen Information System and INTERPOL registers, enabling the identification of uninsured vehicles.
Site selection will be carried out in collaboration with the Traffic Police, based on a dedicated implementation study to be prepared by the winning contractor. Priority deployment areas include the Attica region, Thessaloniki, and Crete. The 1,000-unit network will complement a parallel programme under which the Attica Region is installing 388 cameras independently, eventually forming part of a single integrated enforcement grid.
Bus Camera Programme Mired in Procurement Disputes
While the fixed camera tender advances, a parallel effort to equip public buses with AI enforcement cameras has hit repeated obstacles. OSY, the Athens bus operating subsidiary of the OASA Group, launched an initial tender for approximately 600 bus-mounted camera systems, only to see it cancelled following intervention by the Unified Public Procurement Authority (EADISY). The authority found the technical specifications excessively restrictive and potentially tailored to exclude a significant portion of the market.
A revised tender was issued with a reduced scope: 250 buses for OSY and a supplementary 250 for OASA in a separate process. The systems are intended to use AI and computer vision to automatically detect violations including illegal parking, bus lane incursions, and red-light offences. However, the second attempt has also run into difficulty. A new legal challenge has reportedly been filed by a market participant disputing aspects of the tender terms, prompting OSY to extend the bid submission deadline by two months from its previous closing date of 17 April.
To maintain some level of operational continuity during the procurement delays, OSY and OASA have resorted to direct small-scale contract awards. Currently, 25 buses are operating with cameras under an expansion of the original pilot, while OASA has issued an invitation for systems on an additional 10 vehicles.
A Programme Scaling Up Amid Procurement Complexity
The overall ambition of the Greek programme is substantial. An initial public consultation document outlined a budget competition of €116.3 million for a network of 2,500 cameras to be supplied, installed, and operated for 10 years across key road points nationally. The final programme structure merges fixed cameras from the Ministry tender, the Attica Region’s 388-unit deployment, and bus-mounted systems planned through OSY and OASA, into a single national enforcement architecture.
The challenges facing the bus camera procurement echo patterns seen elsewhere in European automated enforcement deployments, where procurement authority scrutiny of technical specifications has become a recurring point of friction. As Kurrant has reported, transit agencies across the US and Europe are increasingly moving toward vehicle-mounted AI enforcement, with Philadelphia’s SEPTA becoming the first US transit operator to deploy the technology on trolleys in early 2026.
Greece’s fixed enforcement network is already producing results at the pilot stage. The eight cameras operational since late 2025 recorded close to 2,500 violations within their first four days, with a single unit on Syngrou Avenue logging over 1,000 infractions alone. The first batch of 130 administrative fines under the fully activated system was issued on 28 March 2026 via Greece’s gov.gr digital platform.
