Tuesday, October 27 2020 15:20

ArmInfo.. At a plenary session on October 27, the Armenian Parliament ratified a draft  letter of agreement with the German bank KfW on the postponement of  the payment of tranches on a loan of 50 million euros.

According to the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and  Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Vache Terteryan, the  agreement was signed in 2014 and came into force in 2018. However,  over the past period, of the total loan amount, only 2.9 million  euros were disbursed. For this reason, it is proposed to postpone the  start date of payments of tranches and part of the principal amount  of borrowed funds until the end of 2022. Basically, the delay is due  to the long process of developing the environmental impact  assessment. Several days ago, this assessment was received from the  Ministry of Environment, consultants and contractors were selected,  which, after the ratification of the document at the plenary session  of the RA National Assembly, will immediately begin construction  work.

The Kaps reservoir, as the Deputy Minister noted, has not only  hydrological, but also ecological and socio- economic significance.  In conditions when Turkey is actively building reservoirs on its  territory, a problem with a shortage of water may appear. The  construction of the Kaps reservoir, which began in Soviet times, will  significantly solve a possible problem. Vache Terteryan also said  that the state budget of the country provides for an amount of 10  million euros, which will be directed to the resettlement of local  residents, in particular, residents of the village of Jradzor.

Let us remind you that the project cost is estimated at 60 million  euros, it is planned to implement it in cooperation with the German  bank KFW. The capacity of the Cape Reservoir will be 60 million cubic  meters with a 51 meter long dam. The project envisages the  construction of auxiliary structures of the reservoir dam, equipping  the points of hydrological observation of the Akhuryan river (from  the Arpi reservoir to the Akhuryan reservoir), the construction of  additional stations, the creation of a centralized database (SCADA  system). There will be an opportunity to replace mechanical  irrigation of 2,280 hectares of land with gravity irrigation, which  will save 1.3 million kWh of electricity per year. With the  construction of the reservoir, it will become possible to expand the  irrigated area by 7 thousand hectares in the Talin region. The  project is scheduled to start in 2021 and be completed in 3.5 years.

To remind, earlier KfW Bank provided Armenia with a loan of 50  million euros and a grant of 2 million euros for the implementation  of the program for the construction of the Kaps reservoir. The funds  were provided for a period of 15 years with a 5-year grace period at  a fixed loan rate.