ArmInfo.There is no progress in the project to build a new Yerevan metro station. Senior Managing Director of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Denis Ilyin stated this on the sidelines of the annual meeting and business forum of the EDB in a conversation with correspondents of ArmInfo and Sputnik-Armenia. According to him, the EDB has provided everything it can give to this project in terms of a grant mechanism and loans.
"And in general, it is necessary that the client - the Yerevan City Hall, the metro itself - decide on the investment program, because I, as a Bank, cannot give for anything. We need to decide: either build a new station, or we should talk about repair of the current infrastructure, and which part of it. The decision is theirs," Ilyin explained, adding that the Armenian side has not yet provided information on what investment program they need money for. According to him, the Bank is still waiting for a response from the Armenian side.
To clarify whether it could be said that the project was frozen, the Bank representative, in particular, noted: "As far as I understand, it is not frozen. Perhaps this project is not the highest priority. On our part, we have provided everything necessary, we are waiting for the decision of the Armenian side."
At the end of November 2021, it was reported that the leading Russian company Metrogiprotrans won the tender announced by the Yerevan City Hall for the design of the Ajapnyak metro station in the administrative district of the same name in the Armenian capital. The preliminary version of the project involved the construction of a bridge across the Hrazdan River only for the metro, but Metrogiprotrans proposed building a second "floor" for cars and pedestrians. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metrogiprotrans Valery Abramson also proposed a metro development project to the Armenian government worth $500 million. "The Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR) is ready to support the program on favorable terms. With these funds we will be able to modernize the infrastructure of the old metro, and also plan those areas of the city towards which stations can be expanded," Abramson said.
It was reported that if the loan agreement with ESCAR is approved, construction work will last about 1.5 years. According to the plan of the city authorities, the path to the new metro station, 525 meters long, should pass through a tunnel, the construction of which began in Soviet times and remained unfinished. Then the Ajapnyak station remained unfinished; the project included its continuation to the Davidashen district on the northwestern outskirts of the city. The construction project itself covers 3 stages. The first stage involved geological, environmental and other examinations; perhaps already in October the Yerevan City Hall will pay the designer the 545 million drams due to him. Another 300 days are allotted for the implementation of the second and third stages. The total cost of the project could be about $50 million. On May 15, 2023 in Almaty, on the sidelines of the conference of investors - participants of the Association of Development Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), in a conversation with journalists, Chairman of the Board of the EDB Nikolai Podguzov said that the modernization of the Yerevan Metro is a very important project and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is ready to participate in it.
