Everything Must Be Done to Ensure Freight Trucks Coming from Iran Can Transit via the New Route in Winter: Prime Minister

During its meeting on November 17, the government made a redistribution in the law on the 2022 budget. The adoption of the project is related to the necessity of returning unused financial resources planned for activities carried out by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure through loan and grant funds in the framework of the state budget for 2022.

Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan noted, “There are certain obligations that have arisen regarding our loan programs. There are projects that we are completing, and it is necessary to pay the builders, consultants, and technical supervisors. Specifically, this is the program for the vital road network that we are completing this year. The other is the 51 km section of the M6 Vanadzor-Alaverdi-Bagratashen road, which is almost finished, and the 18.7 km section of the North-South project Talin-Lanjik, which is also in the final phase. In total, it is proposed to carry out an inter-program redistribution for these three projects, allocating 1 billion 235 million drams to our ministry. Of this, 595 million drams are for vital programs, 460 million for the M6 project, and 180 million for the Talin-Lanjik project.”

Sanosyan also added that there are several roads currently undergoing rehabilitation: “Specifically, 17.8 kilometers of the 20-kilometer Tatev-Ltsen road has already been paved. We have paved Noravan, and our challenge remains the Shamb-Ltsen section, where we have 6 km to renovate. If we can also pave this section, it will mean that we will be able to use the road in winter. We are all working in that direction,” said Sanosyan.

In response, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that everyone understands the importance of this road and that everything must be done to ensure that freight trucks coming from or going to Iran can transit this route, bypassing the Tatev serpentine.

Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan added that in addition to the 500 km of roads being renovated or built annually, an average of 145 km of intra-community roads are constructed or renovated each year through subsidies. “We will complete 145 km of roads this year, and according to preliminary submissions, we plan to do the same for 2023,” he said.