New kinds of tunnels to appear on highway near Iranian border

YEREVAN. - By the end of December or beginning of January 2016, the tender on the new section of Armenia’s North-South Highway will be announced. Armenia’s first Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication Artur Arakelyan told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am today.

The tender will be announced for the construction from the southernmost point of the Iranian border to the Armenian town of Kajaran. In the framework of the 4th tranche of the project, the 20,5 km section will be constructed by the $150 loan of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB).

A tunnel construction is intended for this section. “The tunnel is planned to be constructed near Kajaran, but already in the framework of another tranche,” he said.

The Ministry doesn’t give up the idea of making a number of the road sections paid (including tunnels and bridges). The private investors are offered to invest into complex infrastructures and exploit them for fee. The only mandatory condition is to preserve an alternative free road, even if the latter is lengthier and more complicated.

The 4-lane “North-South” concrete highway will reduce the time of moving from the Iranian to Georgian border, as well as decrease the 556 km distance to 495 km at the expense of leveling a number of mountainous sections and constructing new and more direct ones (from Ararat town through Vanadzor province to Noravan village of Armenia’s Sisian region, and from there to Kajaran town). The total cost of the construction will be about $960 mln, the main project donor being the Asian Development Bank (ADB) (approx. $500 mln).

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