In September 2003, it was decided to build the Metro as a public project, with funding from the Greek State and the European Union.nnBased on the announcement of the new Tender, in June 2004 five joint ventures with important Greek and foreign companies in the sector submitted an expression of interest. The first stage of the competition was completed in November 2004. Four (4) of the five (5) consortia continued to the second stage and in January 2005 they received the tender documents and the new preliminary study of the project.nnOn 12 May 2005 the pre-selected consortia submitted their technical and financial offer and on August 19 the evaluation of the technical and financial offers of the three consortia that remained in the final stage of the competition was completed.