Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development will finance  Kajaran-Agarak section of North-South road

ArmInfo.The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD), with the co-financing of the Armenian government, will finance the reconstruction of the  Kajaran-Agarak road section of the North-South program. This is  stated in the official statement of the Ministry of Territorial  Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia.

According to the source, the road will be of the 2nd technical  category, 32 km long, with an estimated speed of 80 km/h. The road  section includes 18 bridges and 3 tunnels, of which the longest will  be a 7.5 km tunnel.  Design work was carried out by the IRD  Engineering and GP Engineering Italian companies. In February of this  year, the project received a positive conclusion from the "Expert  Center for Environmental Impact Assessment" SNCO.

The Ministry does not disclose the amount of funding for both the  government and the EFSD.

It should be noted that the "North-South" program with a total length  of 556 km is estimated at $3.5 billion, of which $1.5 billion is  needed only for the Sisian-Agarak section, which includes the  Sisian-Kajaran road ($920 million), a tunnel (7 km., $250 million)  Kajaran-Agarak road (32 km., $249 million).  It should be reminded  that the North-South transport corridor project will provide access  to the Black Sea and European countries through the territory of  Armenia (Meghri-Kapan-Goris-Yerevan-Ashtarak-Gyumri- Bavra) and  Georgia. The investment program is aimed at ensuring the connection  of the north (border with Georgia) and the south of Armenia (border  with Iran) through transport communications that meet high  international standards and access to world markets.

Since the launch of the program (since 2009) to this day, a section  of only 31 km has been built, which is a little more than 5% of the  total kilometer of the road.  It should be noted that the Eurasian  Fund for Stabilization and Development is a regional financial  mechanism worth 8.513 billion US dollars, which was established in  2009 by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and  Tajikistan. The Fund was created in order to overcome the negative  crisis consequences, ensure long-term sustainability and promote the  integration of the economies of the member states of the Fund. The  Fund provides the following support to member states: financial loans  to governments to support the budgets and (or) balance of payments of  member states; investment loans to member states or companies; grants  to finance state programs in the social sphere.  Armenia has been a  member of the Eurasian Economic Union since January 2, 2015. The  volume of the EFSD project portfolio in the Republic of Armenia is:  for financial loans - USD 300 million; on investment loans - 190  million US dollars, of which 150 million US dollars in the direction  of "Transport", 40 million US dollars - in the direction of  "Agriculture". At the stage of preparation is one investment project  in the direction of "Agriculture", the estimated amount of the  investment loan is 25.2 million US dollars.