ArmInfo. Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies of Armenia Ashot Hakobyan received on September 27 the Director for Coordination of the activities of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Sergei Ulatov and the authorized representative for investment projects Armen Poghosyan. The parties discussed prospects for expanding bilateral cooperation. As the press service of the Armenian Ministry of Transport reports, the interlocutors discussed cooperation issues related to the implementation of the investment program for the construction of the North-South transport corridor.
Ashot Hakobyan said that road construction and the formation of appropriate infrastructures are among the priorities of the Armenian government. One of such priorities, as pointed out by the minister, is the implementation of the program "North-South". He also stressed that the Asian Development Bank has already expressed its readiness to participate in the continuation of the construction program. Representatives of the EDB, in turn, noted that they are happy to hear this, as the interaction of the RA government with various donor organizations for the implementation of the North-South investment program can become a kind of guarantee for continuing cooperation with the EDB.
It should be noted that under the "North-South" program the Armenian government calculated preliminary savings of $ 2.5 per hour for each passenger and $ 1 per hour for transporting a ton of cargo. As the authorities expect Armenia, the program will allow the country to mitigate the consequences in the future blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey, to play the role of a transit state in the freight traffic of the countries of the region, and also to join the Black Sea ring highway. The program consists of 5 tranches, for today within the framework of 3 tranches financing of construction of a 160 km section from all 556-kilometer motorway "North-South" is provided. In general, according to the Ministry of Transport, the program is funded 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 loan of $ 150 million from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) was concluded for the implementation of the Tranche-4 Kajaran- Agarak (32 km) and to the Iranian border. In general, the loan portfolio amounted to about $ 540 million. As of today, not all loan funds have been realized - as a loan, an amount of $ 222 million was drawn up, of which $ 56.5 million was paid to builders in advance. According to current calculations, the construction of the entire 556-kilometer North-South highway stretching from Bavra to Meghri will cost $ 2 billion, since only its southern section, between the cities of Artashat and Meghri, is estimated to cost about $ 1 , 5 billion. Meanwhile, 6 years ago, in September 2012, when the construction of the highway began, the amount called by representatives of the Armenian government was more than half that of $ 962 million. The construction of the corridor was originally planned to be completed in 2019. For today, the Ministry of Transport talks about new terms - 5-10 years. The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is the regional development bank established in 2006. Its participants are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia. The authorized capital of the EDB is $ 7 billion, including paid-up $ 1.5 billion, the rest is demand capital, which must be paid by participants if necessary. The share of Russia in the authorized capital of the bank is 65.97%, Kazakhstan - 32.99%, Belarus - 0.99%, Tajikistan - 0.03%, Armenia - 0.01%, Kyrgyzstan - 0.01%.