ArmInfo.Armenia is conducting trilateral talks on opening the alternative road to Upper Lars. Acting Minister of Transport, Communications and Information of Armenia Hakob Arshakyan told reporters on January 10 after a government meeting.
"Armenia is negotiating for the opening of an alternative road to Upper Lars. And since the negotiations are trilateral, and the Armenian side is participating in the negotiations as the 3rd party, I will refrain from going into details so as not to harm the negotiation process," Arshakyan said. According to him, the matter concerns the land road.
The Acting Head of the Ministry of Transport also said that perhaps this year modernization of the Upper Lars checkpoint will be launched, which is included in the program of the Russian Federation on the modernization of border control points. This, as Arshakyan pointed out, will solve many technical issues, as well as improve the traffic capacity of the Upper Lars checkpoint.
To recall, the only land route connecting Armenia with Russia passes through the Upper Lars checkpoint. The problems of truck accumulation in the winter season, and passenger cars in the summer, caused by both the carrying capacity of the customs point and ice, rain and landslides on the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda- Lars highway, became "common" for Armenian carriers. At the end of October 2018, David Ananyan, the Chairman of the SRC of Armenia, during a meeting with Georgian Ambassador to Armenia Giorgi Saganelidze was informed that in the context of increasing the traffic capacity of the Upper Lars checkpoint, the Georgian side intends to build 6 new tunnels and an alternative road to the Russian Federation. Later, the deputy chairman of the Armenian SRC, Mikael Pashayan, did not rule out that speaking of the alternative route, this refers to the Avar-Kakheti road (from Dagestan to Georgia), which was recently actively discussed in social networks. Encouraged by this information, the Armenian side decided not to stand aside. Immediately after this meeting, those responsible for the field in Armenia sent a letter of proposal to the Georgian government with the hope of cooperation. In particular, Armenia proposed to build a tunnel not with two lanes, as is usually done, but with three, in order to leave room for a "lost or non-working car" that will not paralyze traffic in general. To note, the construction project of the Avar-Kakheti road has existed since the middle of the XIX century. At the same time its construction began, since this road was considered strategically important from both the military and economic points of view. But after the construction of the railway along the Caspian Sea, the complex and expensive project was frozen. Now the main importance is attached to the road from an economic point of view, it is pinned on hopes in terms of creating new jobs, transporting goods, and developing tourism. After the construction of the road is completed, the direct route from Caspian to the Black Sea should be only 470 km, which will make it a new advantageous transport corridor. At the same time, some experts believe that the Avaro-Kakheti road as a whole will be safer than the current Georgian- Military road, which often landslides.
Meanwhile, on October 24, 2018, then Georgian presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili stated that in the current situation it is simply impossible to talk about alternative communications to Lars. "We understand that the opening of an alternative road proceeds from the economic interests of Armenia, however, we must first of all be guided by the interests of Georgia. Today, our two regions are occupied by Russia, there are no diplomatic relations between us. Today, the possibility of opening an alternative road with Russia is excluded. In the future, time will tell, "she concluded.