Minister of Transport and Communications of Armenia Gagik Beglaryan met with representatives of Isolux Corsan Company and the newly appointed Director Mario Barsenia Wednesday. The company is engaged in construction activities under Tranche-1 and Tranche-2 of the North-South Transport Corridor investment program.
Minister Beglaryan has set a task to the Company to carry out daily control of the quality of the construction activities to meet the schedule, the Ministry of Transport and Communications told ArmInfo. In the course of the meeting, the minister outlined certain progress in the construction process amid the problems with organization and quality of the construction activities.
"Since the very beginning of the project, I have made one major demand - the construction activities must be carried out strictly in line with the project, as this project is of strategic importance for Armenia. We need to fulfill all the provisions in the contract and to properly implement this important project. No deviations from the project will be accepted," the minister said.
Beglaryan said that company should more closely cooperate with the state non-commercial organization engaged in implementation of the project's investment program, which will help meet the schedule.
Mario Barsenia, in turn, shared the minister's concerns and assured that their specialists are seriously engaged in the process and will help settling all the problems emerging.
Government of Armenia approved the investment program of the North-South transport corridor on Jan 14 2010 and a framework financial agreement between Armenia and ADB in the amount of 500 million dollars. The North-South 556km motorway will be laid via the Armenians towns of Meghri-Kapan-Goris- Yerevan-Ashtarak-Gyumri-Bavra and enter the territory of Georgia on Akhaltsikhe-Batumi section, which will settle some transport problems of Armenia. This will be a four-lane motorway of reinforced concrete extending from the Armenian border and Iran to the Georgian port Batumi. The road corridor will facilitate improving the road connection with the two neighbors of Armenia: Iran and Georgia, providing access to international trade routes and markets. Agarak-Kapan-Yerevan-Gyumri_Bavra road links the South of the country with the North providing access to "Southern Road Corridor" of Georgia which enables access to Poti and Batumi ports or to the East towards Tbilisi. Armenia raised $500mln loan from the Asian Development Bank for the project that is estimated at $1 billion. JICA is also ready to provide $50-$70 million, with the remaining $462mln to be co-funded by Armenia. Due to the project, the overland communication Europe-Caucasus-Asia will be improved. The project will be completed by 2017. It will allow Armenia to soften the consequences of the blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey and to join the Black Sea ring highway. North-South project was initiated by Russia and Iran and implies activation of transport activity, including through construction of new transport communication Russia-Iran-India. Armenia and Iran top leaderships are studying construction of a railway to link the two countries and become part of North-South transport corridor.