$150 million of the loans provided for North-South Highway has been spent till now.
Vahan Martirosyan, the minister of transport, communication and information technologies, announced it.
The minister said that according to preliminary estimates the North-South project may exceed $2billioin.
To the question that road construction is a money laundering area worldwide, is there a proper control over the North-South, Vahan Martirosyan answered, that such cases cannot be excluded but they do their best to have financial control.
To the question that two companies carry out the construction of the North-South Highway; Spanish and Chinese, which company’s work are they pleased with, the minister answered none of them.
“The reason I say so is that the idea I have and would like it to be is not so”.
Relating to the question that the head of the Armenian representation of the Asian development bank Shen Rozentaly speaking about the Freeway mentioned that at the Ashtarak-Lanjik part the village situates South from Gyumri approximately 60km, the construction of each kilometer will cost $3.5million that is the above-mentioned 60km will cost the Armenian citizen
$200million, will our citizens be able to pay that credit, is it needed to pay that much money for 60km, Mr. Martirosyan answered, “The Freeway is divided into two parts; Ashatarak-Talin and Talin-Gyumri, these parts are financed by both the Asian development bank and European bank. The Freeway is not low-lying and considerable land works are being carried out there, so the road cost price is considerably increased. Both the tourist streams and the goods shipping depend on the road quality.
“What concerns to South, we are discussing it both with the private sector and banks for financial part.
Now there are several parts, where the project is not complete it has to be complete, there are discussions with the private sector concerning to paying highway, here we will have a reduction of time for about 2.5 – 3 hours”.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
