Armenian premier unhappy about quality of new-built Ashtarak-Talin road
15.07.2016,
10:35
Hovik Abrahamyan, Armenian prime minister, voiced dissatisfaction at the quality of the Ashtarak-Talin road built by Corsan Corviam, a Spanish company, as part of North-South motor road construction project.
YEREVAN, July 15. /ARKA/. Hovik Abrahamyan, Armenian prime minister, voiced dissatisfaction at the quality of the Ashtarak-Talin road built by Corsan Corviam, a Spanish company, as part of North-South motor road construction project.
Abrahamyan said that the construction process is very sluggish and already constructed sections of North-South road are built shoddily.
He also said that rumors are going around about the pocketing of financial resources by the company.
The premier said he had repeatedly voiced alarm over the matter, but the transport ministry nothing had done for some reason to find out causes.
“The Spanish company that is building the road is an absolute evil in this business,” he said. “It seems there is a problem here.”
This time he instructed Arthur Arakelyan, the transport minister, to deal with the problem personally and detect all the circumstances.
After the meeting, Arakelyan told journalists that that the ministry keeps the construction process under its control and everything is going on in compliance with the set schedule.
It has also become known from his words, that €5 million has been transferred to the contractor as prepayment, of which €4 million has been returned to the government and €1 million has been spent on machinery and materials.
In his words, the contractor company has paid some fine for some faults.
“From the first tranche the company paid about $6 million,” he said.
Commenting on Ashtarak-Talin section mentioned by the prime minister, Arakelyan said that Abrahamyan’s anger applied only to the slow pace of construction.
He said this may be caused by delay in payment to subcontractors. In his opinion, there are no reasons to terminate the contract with the company.
The minister said that all preparations for construction of Gyumri-Bavra and Artashat-Kajaryan sections of the North-South motor road have already completed and negotiations for attracting loans are under way now.
The Armenian government approved January 14, 2010 the investment program to build the North-South transport corridor, as well as a $500 million framework loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank. The project is being funded also by the Eurasian Development Bank and the European Investment Bank.
The goal of the project is to upgrade Armenia’s main corridor road as part of a broader thrust to improve connectivity, and boost trade, growth and livelihood opportunities in the Caucasus and Central Asia sub-regions. Funds are being released by the Asian Development Bank periodically through a multitranche financing facility.
The transport corridor will stretch from the southern Armenian town of Meghri, on the border with Iran, to Bavra in the north on the border with Georgia.
The North-South transport corridor will enable Armenia to mitigate the effects of the blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey. --0---
Abrahamyan said that the construction process is very sluggish and already constructed sections of North-South road are built shoddily.
He also said that rumors are going around about the pocketing of financial resources by the company.
The premier said he had repeatedly voiced alarm over the matter, but the transport ministry nothing had done for some reason to find out causes.
“The Spanish company that is building the road is an absolute evil in this business,” he said. “It seems there is a problem here.”
This time he instructed Arthur Arakelyan, the transport minister, to deal with the problem personally and detect all the circumstances.
After the meeting, Arakelyan told journalists that that the ministry keeps the construction process under its control and everything is going on in compliance with the set schedule.
It has also become known from his words, that €5 million has been transferred to the contractor as prepayment, of which €4 million has been returned to the government and €1 million has been spent on machinery and materials.
In his words, the contractor company has paid some fine for some faults.
“From the first tranche the company paid about $6 million,” he said.
Commenting on Ashtarak-Talin section mentioned by the prime minister, Arakelyan said that Abrahamyan’s anger applied only to the slow pace of construction.
He said this may be caused by delay in payment to subcontractors. In his opinion, there are no reasons to terminate the contract with the company.
The minister said that all preparations for construction of Gyumri-Bavra and Artashat-Kajaryan sections of the North-South motor road have already completed and negotiations for attracting loans are under way now.
The Armenian government approved January 14, 2010 the investment program to build the North-South transport corridor, as well as a $500 million framework loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank. The project is being funded also by the Eurasian Development Bank and the European Investment Bank.
The goal of the project is to upgrade Armenia’s main corridor road as part of a broader thrust to improve connectivity, and boost trade, growth and livelihood opportunities in the Caucasus and Central Asia sub-regions. Funds are being released by the Asian Development Bank periodically through a multitranche financing facility.
The transport corridor will stretch from the southern Armenian town of Meghri, on the border with Iran, to Bavra in the north on the border with Georgia.
The North-South transport corridor will enable Armenia to mitigate the effects of the blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey. --0---
