The construction of North-South transport corridor has been delayed for more than 2 years

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.