World Bank Allocates €13.4 Million to Armenia

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved on May 8 the allocation of an additional €13.4 million for the Armenia Vital Road Network Improvement Project (#LRNIP), which will reconstruct a 61 km long rural road.

The reconstruction of the road will provide over 60,000 rural residents with access to markets and social services.

The restoration works will assist the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies (MTCIT) in the study of climate risks to road infrastructure, particularly landslides, rockfalls, and flooding in disaster-prone areas. This risk assessment will be accompanied by the identification of corrective actions.

The additional funding will also help Armenia improve road safety and evaluate the real cost of road accidents on human lives and the economy. It will be implemented through the establishment of a modern unified system for collecting and managing accident data, facilitating communication between all stakeholders in road traffic safety, and developing road traffic safety management capacities.

"The program also aims to continue supporting the Safe Village initiative by implementing small construction works aimed at road safety and traffic management measures around schools, kindergartens, and community centers, combining them with community-level awareness-raising campaigns," added Nargiz Riskulova, head of the World Bank project team. "Currently, the Safe Village project is being implemented in 66 communities. We expect the number of safe projects to reach 84 by the end of 2019."

The implementation of the current program has progressed well. With the proposed additional funding, the total length of road sections will increase to 450 km, 299 km of which have already been restored. Since the launch of the first "Improvement of Vital Roads" program (IVRP) in 2009, local employment has visibly improved, travel time has reduced by an average of 40%, and a total of 433 km of vital roads have been modernized across the country.

Within the framework of the main program, detailed designs for seven road sections totaling 27 km in the provinces of Ararat, Syunik, Armavir, and Gegharkunik have already been prepared for the first year of the program. The remaining 34 km of road sections will be designed in the summer and will be implemented in five provinces.

The total funding for this program is €16.75 million, of which €3.35 million is the government's contribution. The World Bank will provide €13.4 million (equivalent to $15 million) through a variable spread loan, with a grace period of 14.5 years and a total repayment period of 25.5 years.

Since joining the World Bank in 1992 and the International Monetary Fund in 1993, the total amount of allocations directed to Armenia has been approximately $2.379734 billion.