SPANISH FIRM CONTRACTED FOR ARMENIAN HIGHWAY UPGRADES
Sargis Harutyunyan
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24562837.html
27.04.2012
Armenia - Transport and Communications Minister Manuk Vartanian (L) and
the chief executive of the Spanish company Corsan Corvian Construccion,
Francisco Garcia Martin, at a news conference in Yerevan, 27 Apr 2012.
A Spanish company will rebuild and expand more than 90 kilometers of
major Armenian highways as part of a multimillion-dollar project to
upgrade the country's road infrastructure, officials said on Friday.
The company, Corsan Corvian Construccion, signed a $280 million
contract with the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications
in Yerevan in the presence of a senior executive from the Asian
Development Bank (ADB). The Manila-based bank will finance the bulk
of the construction work from a $500 million loan which it pledged
to provide to Armenia in 2009.
The ADB loan is designed to support the implementation of the
so-called North-South Project envisaging the reconstruction of some
550 kilometers of highways stretching from the Armenian-Iranian border
to one of the three Armenian-Georgian border crossings. The Armenian
government says a key aim of the $1.5 billion project is to enable
Iran to use Armenian and Georgian territory for large-scale freight
shipments to and from Europe.
Work on the project was initially due to start in 2010. But it was
delayed ostensibly because of the government's failure to find foreign
contractors offering reasonable prices.
Under the contract signed by Transport and Communications Minister
Manuk Vartanian and Corsan Corvian Construccion's chief executive,
Francisco Garcia Martin, the Spanish firm will upgrade highways
running south and northwest of Yerevan. The construction is due to
start within two months and take up to three years.
"A motorway of this quality will be built in our country for the
first time ever," Vartanian told journalists at the signing ceremony.
The government has yet to indicate external sources of funding for
the rest of what would be the single largest road project in the
country's history.
Sargis Harutyunyan
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24562837.html
27.04.2012
Armenia - Transport and Communications Minister Manuk Vartanian (L) and
the chief executive of the Spanish company Corsan Corvian Construccion,
Francisco Garcia Martin, at a news conference in Yerevan, 27 Apr 2012.
A Spanish company will rebuild and expand more than 90 kilometers of
major Armenian highways as part of a multimillion-dollar project to
upgrade the country's road infrastructure, officials said on Friday.
The company, Corsan Corvian Construccion, signed a $280 million
contract with the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications
in Yerevan in the presence of a senior executive from the Asian
Development Bank (ADB). The Manila-based bank will finance the bulk
of the construction work from a $500 million loan which it pledged
to provide to Armenia in 2009.
The ADB loan is designed to support the implementation of the
so-called North-South Project envisaging the reconstruction of some
550 kilometers of highways stretching from the Armenian-Iranian border
to one of the three Armenian-Georgian border crossings. The Armenian
government says a key aim of the $1.5 billion project is to enable
Iran to use Armenian and Georgian territory for large-scale freight
shipments to and from Europe.
Work on the project was initially due to start in 2010. But it was
delayed ostensibly because of the government's failure to find foreign
contractors offering reasonable prices.
Under the contract signed by Transport and Communications Minister
Manuk Vartanian and Corsan Corvian Construccion's chief executive,
Francisco Garcia Martin, the Spanish firm will upgrade highways
running south and northwest of Yerevan. The construction is due to
start within two months and take up to three years.
"A motorway of this quality will be built in our country for the
first time ever," Vartanian told journalists at the signing ceremony.
The government has yet to indicate external sources of funding for
the rest of what would be the single largest road project in the
country's history.