Thursday, January 10 2019 15:54

ArmInfo.Armenia is conducting trilateral talks on opening the alternative road to Upper Lars. Acting Minister of Transport, Communications and Information of  Armenia Hakob Arshakyan told reporters on January 10 after a  government meeting.

"Armenia is negotiating for the opening of an  alternative road to Upper Lars. And since the negotiations are  trilateral, and the Armenian side is participating in the  negotiations as the 3rd party, I will refrain from going into details  so as not to harm the negotiation process," Arshakyan said. According  to him, the matter concerns the land road.

The Acting Head of the Ministry of Transport also said that perhaps  this year modernization of the Upper Lars checkpoint will be  launched, which is included in the program of the Russian Federation  on the modernization of border control points. This, as Arshakyan  pointed out, will solve many technical issues, as well as improve the  traffic capacity of the Upper Lars checkpoint.

To recall, the only land route connecting Armenia with Russia passes  through the Upper Lars checkpoint.  The problems of truck  accumulation in the winter season, and passenger cars in the summer,  caused by both the carrying capacity of the customs point and ice,  rain and landslides on the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda- Lars highway,  became "common" for Armenian carriers. At the end of October 2018,  David Ananyan, the Chairman of the SRC of Armenia, during a meeting  with Georgian Ambassador to Armenia Giorgi Saganelidze was informed  that in the context of increasing the traffic capacity of the Upper  Lars checkpoint, the Georgian side intends to build 6 new tunnels and  an alternative road to the Russian Federation. Later, the deputy  chairman of the Armenian SRC, Mikael Pashayan, did not rule out that  speaking of the alternative route, this refers to the Avar-Kakheti  road (from Dagestan to Georgia), which was recently actively  discussed in social networks. Encouraged by this information, the  Armenian side decided not to stand aside. Immediately after this  meeting, those responsible for the field in Armenia sent a letter of  proposal to the Georgian government with the hope of cooperation. In  particular, Armenia proposed to build a tunnel not with two lanes, as  is usually done, but with three, in order to leave room for a "lost  or non-working car" that will not paralyze traffic in general.  To  note, the construction project of the Avar-Kakheti road has existed  since the middle of the XIX century.  At the same time its  construction began, since this road was considered strategically  important from both the military and economic points of view. But  after the construction of the railway along the Caspian Sea, the  complex and expensive project was frozen. Now the main importance is  attached to the road from an economic point of view, it is pinned on  hopes in terms of creating new jobs, transporting goods, and  developing tourism. After the construction of the road is completed,  the direct route from Caspian to the Black Sea should be only 470 km,  which will make it a new advantageous transport corridor. At the same  time, some experts believe that the Avaro-Kakheti road as a whole  will be safer than the current Georgian- Military road, which often  landslides.

Meanwhile, on October 24, 2018, then Georgian presidential candidate  Salome Zurabishvili stated that in the current situation it is simply  impossible to talk about alternative communications to Lars. "We  understand that the opening of an alternative road proceeds from the  economic interests of Armenia, however, we must first of all be  guided by the interests of Georgia.  Today, our two regions are  occupied by Russia, there are no diplomatic relations between us.  Today, the possibility of opening an alternative road with Russia is  excluded. In the future, time will tell, "she concluded.