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.
