On the section of the Yerevan-Artashat motorway of the transport corridor"North-South" found cracks: the Ministry of Transport has no complaints

ArmInfo. On the road  sectionYerevan-Artashat transport corridor "North-South" found a  crack.This was stated by the Minister of Transport, Communications  and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan on July 13 after the  meeting of the government, stressing that the service contract with  the construction company of the Spanish "Corsan Corviam" was not  completed due to which the Ministry of Transport demanded  restoration.

Meanwhile, the Spanish company in Armenia, more precisely in road  construction of the country, "became famous" for a long time. Back in  July last year, former head of government Hovik Abrahamyan said that  the Spanish construction company has become a real evil for the  highway "North- South. "Abrahamyan said about the financial problems  of the Spanish company and that the Ararat road is still" in the  problems and made poor. "" There are some problems with this company  and I do not know with whom: They say there is no money, They were  just taken away, "Abrahamyan instructed, in addition to information  in the media that because of the" Armenian traditional "corruption,  the Spaniards are not able to carry out the construction of the  North-South road, information has also appeared that against the  Spanish organization 

A criminal case was opened, which was confirmed in the Ministry of  Finance ac ross. The Ministry reported that "on October 10th 2014. On  the second part of the 205th article of the RA Criminal Code, a  criminal case was instituted in connection with tax evasion on a  particularly large scale by the Armenian branch of the joint-stock  company Corsan Corviam. At the same time, the Ministry of Transport  recorded deficiencies for which the Spanish company was fined $ 5.7  million. Now the works are being carried out according to the  schedule. However, today the Minister of Transport assures that today  the quality of work of the construction company does not cause  censures. The other day the minister visited the Ashtarak- Tallinn  section and did not note any criticism from both engineers and  specialists from the Ministry and the BCP. "Works on the  Yerevan-Ashtarak section will be completed in autumn 2017," Vahan  Martirosyan assured.

It should be noted that on June 27 at the budget hearings in the  parliament Gagik Grigoryan, the first deputy minister of transport,  communications and information technologies of Armenia, stated that  the North- South highway is ahead of schedule. According to him,  instead of the planned 17.3 billion drams already used 24 billion  drams. Work on the first tranche (Tranche 1), envisaged for the  Yerevan-Artashat and Yerevan-Ashtarak sections is almost complete, on  the route Ashtarak-Talin (Tranche 2) work is still under way. In the  third section (Tranche 3) of Talin-Gyumri, excavation work is carried  out and a trial laying of concrete is under way.

The construction of the highway "North-South" with a total length of  556 km will provide access to the Black Sea and European countries  through the territory of Armenia (Meghri-Kapan-Goris-Yerevan-  Ashtarak-Gyumri-Bavra) and Georgia.

The $ 1 billion investment program is aimed at securing the  connection between the north (the border with Georgia) and southern  Armenia (the border with Iran) through transport communications that  meet high international standards and access to world markets. The  road will be covered with concrete. To implement the project, Armenia  raised a loan from the Asian Development Bank in the amount of $ 500  million.  Another $ 150 million will be provided by the Eurasian  Development Bank. The Armenian side also attracted 60 million euros  from the European Investment Bank for the implementation of the  project. The construction of the corridor is planned to be completed  in 2019. Under the "North-South" program, the Armenian government  calculated the preliminary savings of $ 2.5 per hour for each  passenger and $ 1 per hour for transporting a ton of cargo. As the  authorities of Armenia expect, the program will allow the country in  the future to mitigate the consequences of the blockade on the part  of Azerbaijan and Turkey, to play the role of a transit state in the  freight transportation of the countries of the region, and also to  join the Black Sea ring highway.