Important Changes Expected at the Lars Border Crossing

Armen Simonyan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia, received representatives from the Asian Development Bank's Armenia mission, including senior local expert Steve Allen. The main topic of discussion at the meeting was the multimodal transportation of agri-food products in the South Caucasus and beyond. The meeting also involved Mihran Khachatryan, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, and Aleksey Melnikov, General Director of South Caucasus Railways.

The Deputy Minister welcomed the guests and presented the experience and capabilities of cargo transportation from Armenia to Russia, Georgia, and Europe, emphasizing that in the near future, two Armenian airlines will carry out air freight transportation. Additionally, the Government is working on the direction of transporting goods via ferries across the Black Sea.

Steve Allen introduced the 'Gateways of the South Caucasus' project, aimed at increasing investments in the region, and discussed the opportunities for rapid transportation of perishable food items. Armen Simonyan noted that, as a result of cooperation with the Russian side, the existing 13 routes at the Lars checkpoint have been supplemented with 12 more, and by the end of the year, the checkpoint will be fully reconstructed, which will significantly increase the number of vehicles serviced daily.

Aleksey Melnikov, for his part, mentioned that transporting perishable goods by rail will become technically feasible once issues regarding specialized rolling stock and the installation of appropriate refrigeration systems are resolved. Other relevant issues were also discussed during the meeting.