Thursday, November 2 2017 10:09

ArmInfo. Under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan, the regular meeting of the Board of Management of Investment Programs of the North-South Road Corridor and Sustainable Urban Development took place.

According to the press service of the Armenian government, the council took note of the termination of the contract with the Italian company Serenissima Costruzioni ltd and approved a package of bidding documents to receive an order for work on the construction of the Argavan-Shirak highway section of the Yerevan bypass road.

The Council also discussed and approved the results of the evaluation of the tender for the provision of audit services within the framework of the Sustainable Urban Development Investment Program Tranche-2 and provided a contract to ZAO Grand Toronton.

The reason for the termination of the contract with the Italian company in the press service's message does not say anything. Meanwhile, it is worth recalling that as early as July 21, 2016, the Armenian government issued Serenissima Costruzioni ltd permission for the construction of the Argavand-Shirak highway section within the framework of the Tranche-2 "Sustainable Urban Development Investment Program".

On March 4, 2016 in Yerevan, between the capital's city hall and the Italian company Serenissima Costruzioni ltd, an agreement was signed on the construction of the Argavand-Shirak highway section. The agreement signed between the capital city administration and the Serenissima Costruzioni, which won the international tender, is aimed at implementing the credit program for the construction of the Yerevan bypass road.

It should be noted that the works, according to the contract, include the construction of a new metal bridge and a two-way road over the Hrazdan River the length of 2.7 km. Under the bridge will be installed equipment to prevent drains into the river Hrazdan of sewage and oil products. The width of the new road will be about 24 m with 4-6 zones for traffic. The new track will be equipped with an LED-compliant LED backlighting.

Recall that Armenia signed on October 13, 2015 a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank in the amount of $ 112.97 million in the second part of the "Investment Program for Sustainable Urban Development." The loan is provided in dollars, at a floating interest rate of LIBOR + 0.5%. The maturity of the loan is 22 years with a 15-year grace period. The program is expected to be completed by 2020. The program consists of several components. Of the nearly $ 113 million, $ 65 million will be spent on the construction of the Argavand-Shirak road, as well as the Babadzhanyan-Ashtarak, Davidashen-Ashtarak highways, with a total length of 17 km. $ 13 million will be used to compensate residents of houses located in the territory on which road construction will be carried out. According to preliminary estimates, in these territories there are about 220 registered units of real estate and about 300 unregistered units. Another $ 12.6 million is provided for consultations, within the framework of which it is planned to create design and settlement documents for the next, third, tranche. The latter will be directed to the construction of roads and infrastructures in other cities of Armenia, within the framework of consultations, a selection of these cities is also planned. In addition, domestic and foreign specialists will jointly create a new transport model of Yerevan, as well as technical control and technical audit of this tranche. The program will also train retraining workers in the transport sector, at least 25% of whom should be women. The entire length of the road will be provided with the necessary engineering infrastructure, modern energy-saving LED lighting is installed. Areyan assured that the implementation of the program will have a great social effect, with no commercial tools for repaying the loan, the roads will not be paid, the government will return the funds.