ArmInfo. Armenian Government on October 5 at the meeting approved changes in loan agreements with the Asian Development Bank on the extension of the completion of the construction of the second and third sections of the investment program of North- South transport corridor.
In particular, as the Minister of Transport, Communications and IT Vahan Martirosyan stressed, the draft law on ratification of the letter of agreement on amendments to loan agreements is "The investment program of the North-South transport corridor. Program 2>, signed between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Asian Development Bank on May 30, 2011, and , signed between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Asian Development Bank on March 11, 2014, offers an extension of the construction of the second section - Ashtarak-Talin, was extended by 27 months, and the third site of Talin-Gyumri - by 21 months.
According to Vahan Martirosyan, these agreements are in accordance with the RA Constitution. According to the minister, these agreements are to be submitted for ratification to the Armenian parliament in the form of a law. Recently, at a meeting with journalists, Vahan Martirosyan said that according to current calculations, the construction of the entire 556-kilometer North-South highway stretching from Bavra to Meghri will cost more than $ 2 billion, since it is only the southern section between the cities of Artashat and Meghri, according to preliminary estimates, would cost $ 1.5 billion. Meanwhile, five years ago, in September 2012, when the construction of the highway began, the amount that was called by representatives of the Armenian government was more than half that amount - $ 962 million. Today it is spent $ 150.3 million and EUR 23.14 million. At the moment, only a 31 km section has been built and modernized, for which $ 70 million was spent. The rest was directed for excavation work on the Ashtarak- Talin and Talin-Gyumri sections. Also, work was carried out on concreting the road 11 km.
