ArmInfo. T Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia Gnel Sanosyan refrained from specifying even the approximate cost of the North-South Road Corridor Investment Program and preferred not to indicate the deadlines of its implementation.
"It is impossible to estimate the cost of the entire program, since we have areas for which there are no design estimate documentation yet," he told reporters on May 15 on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), after signing a loan agreement to finance the Southern section Sisian-Kajaran road of the North-South Road Corridor Investment Program in the amount of 236 million euros.
However, according to him, sections of the Artashat-Ashtarak, Talin-Lanjik road have already been built, the construction of Lanjik-Gyumri will be completed within a few months, and Ashtarak-Talin is at the implementation stage. In total, he said, approximately 82 km of road sections are currently under construction.
In addition, preparations are already underway for construction on the southernmost section of the road (Agarak-Kajaran), and a contractor has already been selected. A competition for the construction of the Kajaran tunnel will be announced soon.
The "North-South Road Corridor Investment Program" is a major infrastructure project in Armenia which aims at reducing the distance from the Iranian border to the Georgian one from 556 to 490 kilometers. The road will significantly facilitate access to the Black Sea not only for Armenia, but also for Iran. The 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. Construction of the corridor was originally scheduled to be completed in 2019. The cost of the program was constantly revised upward. Meanwhile, in September 2012, when construction of the highway began, the amount quoted by representatives of the Armenian government was several times less - $962 million.
