Friday, February 8 2019 14:37

ArmInfo.The Government of Armenia is making every effort to complete the construction of the North-South Road Corridor Investment Program, envisaged in the  Tranche-1 and Tranche-2, on time. Armenian Minister of Transport,  Communications and IT Hakob Arshakyan told journalists on February 8  after a government meeting.

According to the Minister, the construction work of the  Ashtarak-Talin road within the framework of the Tranche - 2 stage of  the North-South Road Corridor Investment Program slowed down a bit.  In the near future this will be announced. Regarding the Tranche-3  (sections of the Talin-Lanjik and Lanjik-Gyumri roads), active  negotiations are being held with Chinese friends and donor  organizations.

As the Minister pointed out, the pace of work has tripled with the  efficient efforts of the Ministry. "Initially, before the change of  government, the pace of work was too slow for various reasons. But we  will continue our efforts to complete the work on time," Arshakyan  said.  .  The slowdown of work in the framework of Tranche -2 is  associated with problems encountered by the contractor, he said. In  particular, the general contractor of the "Corsan Corviam" Spanish  project wished to carry out the work with the help of subcontractors,  as a result of which a number of technical problems were identified.

In addition, as the Minister recalled, it is not a secret to anyone  that there were serious problems with the quality of the work  performed, both in the framework of Tranche-1 (segments  Yerevan-Artashat and Yerevan-Ashtarak) and Tranche-2. But, since the  issue is under the jurisdiction of the investigating authorities,  Hakob Arshakyan refrained from commenting.

As for the construction in the framework of Tranche-4, which will be  conducted on the Kajaran-Agarak segment, then, as the head of the  Ministry of Transport pointed out, it is impossible to make  predictions about the start of construction today, since all efforts  have been made to implement part of the project in a southerly  direction. This section will cut the road for 55 km and save time for  2 hours. "The main work is now concentrated in the south, where it is  necessary to build a tunnel and bridges.

The cost of the tunnel and the three bridges will be $ 350-400  million, " Arshakyan said. To the question of ArmInfo, according to  current estimates, how much the whole project is estimated, Hakob  Arshakyan said:" I can only say that the initial estimate of the  project cost is approximately $ 900 million, is erroneous. "

To recall, the project to establish a North-South transport corridor  with a total length of 556 km will allow access to the Black Sea and  European countries through Armenia  (Meghri-Kapan-Goris-Yerevan-Ashtarak- Gyumri-Bavra) and Georgia. The  investment program is aimed at providing communication of the north  (border with Georgia) and southern Armenia (border with Iran) through  transport communications that meet high international standards, and  access to world markets. Tenders for the construction of the first  few lines of the route were won by the Spanish "Corsan Corviam", the  last tender (for the Landzhik-Gyumri section in the north of Armenia)  by the Chinese "Sinohydro Corporation" company. With the latter, the  Ministry of Transport and Communications of Armenia signed a contract  in May 2016 amounting to about $ 60 million in the framework of the  Tranche-3 of the investment program. The Kajaran-Agarak project will  be the fourth section of the North-South project. Within the  framework of the project, it is planned to rebuild the arterial roads  of Armenia from the Iranian to the Georgian border. Partially they  will be rebuilt from asphalt to concrete, partially expanded. And in  some areas they will build straight stretches instead of roundabout  turns in the mountains. Construction of the corridor was originally  planned to be completed in 2019. Meanwhile, on September 4, at a  meeting with journalists, former Minister of Transport,  Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of  Armenia Ashot Hakobyan stated that the implementation of the  investment program for building the North-South road corridor can  take from 5 to 10 years. According to him, the timing of the project  will depend on funding, pace and quality of the program. According to  him, the construction will cost $ 2 billion, since only its southern  section, between the cities of Artashat and Meghri, according to  preliminary estimates, will cost about $ 1.5 billion.  Meanwhile, 6  years ago, in September 2012, when the construction of the highway,  the amount that representatives of the Armenian government called was  more than half as much - $ 962 million