South Caucasus Railway company invested over 100bln drams in six years – Rebets
23.12.2014,
14:51
The South Caucasus Railway (SCR) company invested a total of 100 billion 858.1 million drams in rail transport sector in the period from 2008 to 2014, general director of the company Victor Rebets told reporters on Monday.
YEREVAN, December 23. /ARKA/. The South Caucasus Railway (SCR) company invested a total of 100 billion 858.1 million drams in rail transport sector in the period from 2008 to 2014, general director of the company Victor Rebets told reporters on Monday.
In 2014 alone, the company’s investments amounted to 6.5 billion drams. A similar amount is planned for 2015, Rebets said.
According to the concession agreement signed with the Armenian government, the SCR is obliged to invest 174 billion 559.9 million drams in 2008-2038, of it 122 billion 349.9 million in infrastructures and 52 billion 210 million drams in rolling stock.
“The company is making all the investments as per the concession agreement; the amount of investments is not reduced, despite the fact that freight volumes are lower than what is defined in the concession agreement”, Rebets said.
All the funds have been used for modernization of infrastructures to raise the level of safety and reliability of the operations, the general director said.
The company has built and commissioned three main rail bridges to replace three 1898 bridges, the oldest in Armenia Zamanlin bridge, the Devil’s Bridge and Kober-Tumanyan section bridge.
Repairs included works on 349.1 kilometers of railroad, 70 switches, 52 crossings, 36 bridges and other facilities. A total of 616,000 railway sleepers were replaced and train stations were reconstructed and modernized.
A total of about 1.4 billion drams was invested in reconstruction of the rail junction in Sanahin.
The first electric train repaired in Armenia over the last 25 years will be commissioned on December 25, Rebets said adding three more trains are to be repaired in the country next year to further improve reliability of the operations.
South Caucasus Railway, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, runs Armenian Railway, which was handed over to the South Caucasus Railway on February 13, 2008 for 30-year concession management with a right to prolong the management term for other 10 years. ($1 – 456.17 drams). –0-
