ArmInfo. RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Armen Simonyan received the representatives of the Armenian mission of the Asian Development Bank, with the participation of ADB senior local expert Steve Allen.
According to the department, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee Mihran Khachatryan and General Director of South Caucasus Railway CJSC Alexei Melnikov also attended the meeting, the main topic of which was the multimodal transportation of agri-food products in the South Caucasus and beyond.
According to the source, the deputy minister presented the Armenian experience and the possibilities of carrying out cargo transportation from Armenia to Russia, Georgia and Europe, stressing, that in the near future 2 Armenian airlines will start carrying out cargo air transportation. And the Government of Armenia is also carrying out work on the transportation of goods by ferries across the Black Sea.
Steve Allen presented the South Caucasus Gateway project aimed at increasing investment in the region and touched upon the possibilities of fast transportation of perishable products.
Armen Simonyan noted that as a result of cooperation with the Russian side, 12 more lanes have been added to the 13 existing lanes of the Lars checkpoint, and by the end of the year the checkpoint will be completely reconstructed, as a result of which the number of cars serviced daily will increase several times.
Alexei Melnikov, in turn, noted that the transportation of perishable goods by rail will become technically possible when the issues of introducing specialized rolling stock and an appropriate refrigeration system are resolved. Other issues related to this topic were also discussed during the meeting.
