ArmInfo. Armenia intends to attract $1.3 billion in loans for the construction of the southern section of the North-South road corridor investment program alone. This was stated by Kristine Galechyan, the Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia on November 6.
She was submitting a $200 million loan agreement with the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) for the construction of the Kajaran tunnel for approval by the National Assembly. As stated by the Deputy Minister, the total amount of borrowed funds raised under the program to date is $503 million, with approximately $170 million yet to be utilized. These funds will be allocated for the construction of the Agarak and Kajaran sections. A loan agreement worth 236 million euros, intended to finance the work on the Sisian-Agarak section, will soon be submitted to parliament for approval.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved a proposal to sign a $200 million loan agreement with the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) to finance the Kajaran Tunnel Construction project within the North-South program on July 25 of the current year. The program aims to enhance the transit potential and decrease accidents along the North-South road corridor. The tunnel, spanning 7 km, is planned to be built within 6 years. Additionally, there are plans to renovate the access roads to the tunnel, totaling 4 km of length. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $370 million. The loan is provided at an annual rate of 4% with a repayment period of 20 years. Let us remind you that the new 60-kilometer Sisian-Kajaran road will be classified as the second technical category road. It will pass through a challenging mountainous terrain, including 27 bridges with a total length of 4.7 km and 9 tunnels with a total length of 12.5 km (the longest tunnel, the Bargushat tunnel, is about 8.6 km long). The pre-qualification stage of the international tender for this project has been completed, with applications submitted by 23 companies from Europe, China and other countries.
Out of the total financial assistance package from the EU to Armenia of 2.6 billion euros, 600 million euros will be allocated for the construction of the Kajaran-Sisian road over the next five years. The 60 km section of the road will be designed for a speed of 80 km/h. Today, the relevant committee of the parliament also approved a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Armenia totaling 10 million euros (with an expected grant of 2 million euros) for the construction of the Foreign Economic Activity (FEA) Center - a logistics and customs terminal in the city of Sisian in the Syunik region. The Armenian government will co-finance 20% of the total amount. The corresponding agreement was signed on May 14 between Armenian Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan and EBRD Vice President Matteo Patrone in Yerevan.
The center is planned to be built as part of the Crossroads of Peace project near the village of Shaki, on a 7.7-hectare plot of land, 7 km from Sisian, next to the future new section of the North-South highway. An administrative building is also planned to be constructed as part of the project. The center will be equipped with laboratory equipment, X-ray machines for inspecting passenger transport, hand luggage and small cargo, for scanning people, UHF radio stations, a data processing center, document readers, and document authentication devices. There will be five lanes and a pair of scales of 100 tons each in both the entry and exit directions. With the launch of the center, electronic control systems and digital solutions, it will be possible to fully implement the concept. This will allow for almost the entire process of obtaining the necessary permits and customs clearance of goods to be carried out through a single electronic application, following the principle.
As stated by Deputy Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Ashot Muradyan, in 2022, 373,000 tons of cargo were declared at the Southern Customs Department of the State Revenue Committee, and in 2023 - 569 thousand tons. The number of declarations in 2022 was 8,100, and in 2023 - 14,300. In 2022, 17.6 thousand cars were transported through this department, and in 2023that number grew to 29.900 cars. is one of the largest projects in the history of independent Armenia. This road will reduce the distance from the Iranian border to the Georgian border from 556 to 490 kilometers, significantly facilitating access to the Black Sea not only for Armenia, but also for Iran.
Earlier, ArmInfo reported, citing MTUI, that the work on the construction of a 7 km long tunnel and reconstruction of a 4-kilometer section of the existing M-2 road from Yerevan to Yeraskh,,Goris,,Meghri and the Iranian border is planned to begin only in 2025. In general, the investment program for the road corridor "North-South", initially planned to be completed within 4-5 years (the start was given on September 13, 2012), has only been 10% implemented with less than $ 1 billion spent. By the end of May 2024, the amount of attracted loans amounted to $ 800.7 million. As part of the project, borrowed funds from the EDB (EFSD), according to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Armenia, reached $ 150 million. (Tranche 4, section of the Artashat-Agarak road).
