Reconstructed railway station opens in Armenia’s Masis city

YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. The restored railway station of the South Caucasus Railways (SCR) in Armenia’s Masis city resumed its activities on Friday.

The reconstructed station has changed its destination, due to improvements in the railway scheme.

“This is the most important railway station in Armenia, since it has become a checkpoint for trains traveling five different destinations,” said Sergey Harutyunyan, SCR chief engineer.

The specialist believes the reconstructed station will help save on material expenditures and fix the arrivals/departures schedule of trains.

According to Harutyunyan, some 55mln drams were spent on the reconstruction of the railway station, with around 20mln drams being allocated for restoration of rail facilities.

“All those expenditures have been included in the 2009 investment program and the first-half expenses are in line with the SCR budget,” the SCR chief engineer was quoted as saying.

In his turn, SCR Deputy General Director Marat Khakov said the station opens on the Railroaders’ Day marked on August 2 this year.

“Traditionally, we meet with veteran railroaders, but we have changed the meeting format. It will take place in Masis, not in Yerevan, to show what SCR is doing now and what the current challenges are,” Khakov said. “The veterans will prompt us what to focus on,” he continued.

The SCR deputy general director believes the opening of the station will become the first landmark event on the Railroaders’ Day.

The newly-reconstructed Ayrum-based railway station will also resume its activities soon. A railway museum will open its doors in Yerevan on Friday.

On 1 June 2008, SCR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russian Railways, received property owned by Armenian Railways (under the February 13, 2008 concession agreement the parties concluded for 30 years, with a right of extension for another 20 years after the first 20 years of operation). The company is to invest 2.6bln Russian rubles in Armenia’s railway system. Z. Sh. –0--