Thursday, May 23 2019 13:48

ArmInfo.7.4 billion drams from an additional 62 billion drams of tax revenues will be additionally allocated to the implementation of programs in the field of road  construction in Armenia. The decision was taken at the May 23 meeting  of the RA government.  Presenting the project, Minister of Transport,  Communication and Information Technologies of the Republic of Armenia  Hakob Arshakyan noted that financial resources will be raised from  additional tax revenues.

The program provides for the repair of state  roads requiring urgent repairs. Of this amount, 2.5 billion drams  will be directed to the repair and construction of roads, and 4.8  billion drams - to their maintenance and operation. In total, 12  sections of the road with a total length of 79 km are to be repaired,  of which 28 km is thorough. Within 30 days of the entry into force of  the decision, the Ministry will submit a full list of roads. In some  areas, work began on May 15, in others they start from June 15.

In turn, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan reminded that within  the framework of the already approved programs, 320 km of interstate  and republican roads will be repaired. For these purposes, the state  budget of the country allocated 16.6 billion drams. In this case, as  the Deputy Prime Minister noted, we are not talking about the  North-South road and joint subvention programs with the country's  communities totaling about 10 billion drams.

Earlier, Hakob Arshakyan noted that in the next few years the roads  in Armenia will be brought to a normal state. According to the  calculations presented in 2015 by the Asian Development Bank require  annually about 20 billion drams for the entire road network of  Armenia to be repaired and maintained at the proper level. "We should  get closer to this indicator. Nevertheless, the main focus should be  on turning Armenia into a transit zone towards Georgia and Iran. And  this year we will allocate more than 15 billion drams to road  construction," the minister noted. According to him, repair work of  the M6 motorway connecting Vanadzor with the Georgian border will be  completed next year. "Next year we will have a high-quality road  leading from Yerevan to the border of Armenia," the Minister of  Transport promised.

In January of this year, it became known that the European Union and  the World Bank until 2030 will provide Armenia with 732 million  euros, which will be almost entirely directed to the repair and  construction of roads stretching from the Armenian-Iranian to the  Armenian-Georgian border. Under the TEN-T program, the European Union  and the World Bank are planning to invest 12.8 billion euros by 2030  in a number of large-scale infrastructure projects in the six  countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program (Armenia,  Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). The funds will be  directed to the modernization of roads and railways, airports,  seaports and border points. According to Hakob Arshakyan, within the  framework of this program, funding is being negotiated in the amount  of $ 350 million, which will be used to build a 60-kilometer stretch  of Sisian-Kajaran road, after which it will be possible to get from  Yerevan to Meghri 2 hours faster. According to the minister, after  reaching an agreement on financing, this road can be built in two  years. "By building a single tunnel of 8.7 kilometers and three  bridges, we can shorten the time to travel along this stretch by 2  hours, as well as improve safety, since this is a mountainous  section, and because of the relief, traffic slows down, and there are  serious seasonal problems, "explained Arshakyan. The head of the  Ministry of Transport also touched the North-South highway, which is  under construction since September 2012, with the goal of building  which the former governments of Armenia, as was announced today,  attracted about $ 550 million of loans. It was planned that the  construction of the Talin-Gyumri section of this road would be  completed in July of this year, but the construction was delayed, and  the new deadline is not yet known.