ArmInfo. Because of the meager budgetary financing, the fate of the construction of the rest of the North-South highway is vague. The Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of Armenia Ashot Hakobyan stated this at a press conference on July 18.
According to the minister, the investment program of the North-South transport corridor consists of 5 tranches, today, in the framework of 3 tranches, the construction of a 160-kilometer section of the entire 556-kilometer North-South highway is secured. In general, as he pointed out, the program is financed by the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Eurasian Development Bank. Within the framework of Tranche-1, $ 60 million of loans were raised from the Asian Development Bank of ADB. Within the framework of Tranche-2, the Ashtarak-Talin section, with a length of 42 km. ADB received another $ 170 million. On tranche-3, $ 100 million of ADB loans (Talin-Landik section - 18.7 km) and 60 million rubles were attracted on the Ashtarak-Talin section, Talin-Gyumri. EUR 12 million of grants were raised from the European Investment Bank (Landjik-Gyumri - 27.5 km). A $ 150 million agreement was signed with the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) for the implementation of the Kajaran-Agarak Tran-4 (32 km) and the Iranian border. As a whole, the credit portfolio amounted to about $ 540 million. As of today, as the minister pointed out, not all loan funds have been realized - as a loan the amount of $ 222 million was drawn up, of which $ 56.5 million was paid in advance of construction workers. "It was preliminary announced that the cost of the program will be $ 1 billion, but it is now clear that this figure will increase," he said.
Nevertheless, as Hakobyan stressed, the government intends to invest all its potential, make the program transparent and increase public control over the implementation of the investment program of the North- South transport corridor. To date, the head of the Armenian Ministry of Transport refrains from talking about embezzlement, since it is not in his competence, but he promises that all those who are guilty will answer the low-quality roads that have been built so far. In order that henceforth there should be no such violations, a public platform will be created, with the involvement of representatives of NGOs that will participate in all kinds of organizational processes - competitions, inspections, etc. As ArmInfo informed earlier, $ 47 million will be allocated to the continuation of the program for the construction of the North- South transport corridor in 2018. The funds will be attracted in the form of credit resources from the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Eurasian Development Bank, and 2.8 billion drams is to be received in the form of a grant from the European Investment Bank.
At the same time, on June 1, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said during the government session that the Government of Armenia intends to conduct studies on the effectiveness of using credit funds for the construction of the road section of the Talin-Landik highway, which is part of the North-South transport corridor. According to him, the problems are related to poor performance of the Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation, which committed numerous violations. "The best way out would be to terminate the contract with this company, but this step will not solve the problem," the deputy prime minister said, adding that the company's actions also have corruption risks that must be paid special attention in the research process.
Meanwhile, at the end of September last year, at a meeting with journalists, the then minister of transport, communications and information technologies of Armenia Vahan Martirosyan informed that according to current calculations, the construction of the entire 556-kilometer North-South highway stretching from Bavra to Meghri will cost in the amount of $ 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, five years ago, in September 2012, when the construction of the highway began, the amount that on representatives of the Armenian government were more than half that amount - $ 962 million. The construction of the corridor was originally planned to be completed in 2019. Already today it is officially announced that the terms are postponed for more than 2 years.
