Friday, June 28 2024 13:00

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.