Last week, the Armenian government approved the loan agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which will be directed to the construction of the Sisian-Kajaran section of the North-South highway project. It is perhaps the most difficult part of road construction from the point of view of relief. In general, the sections of Syunik and Vayots Dzor are the most difficult from that point of view, even with the naked eye. According to the announcement of the government, the construction of the Sisian-Kajaran section is planned to be completed in 2032. Does Armenia have that much time?
On the other hand, of course, the question arises whether Armenia has enough road construction resources to implement this strategic project in a faster period. On the one hand, the time is not so long – 8 years, on the other hand, taking into account the existing experience and precedents, if, for example, Armenia has been building the Sisian-Tatev highway for more than three years, with problematic quality to say the least, it is a road of completely different standards. unlike the North-South, which demands a high international standard, one can imagine how many years will actually be delayed for the North-South, if the set official period is 8 years.
The North-South project should have been completed by now if the work towards its implementation had been done in good faith from the beginning. However, “good faith” was only the corrupt interest in that program that existed in the former governing system of Armenia. After 2018, criminal cases were initiated, but this in turn affected the pace of road construction, and the new government was not able to combine the problem of project efficiency with the problem of speeding up the construction.
It is possible to give many reasons, but there are two circumstances: there is the fact that the construction of the road continues to proceed very slowly, and there is an undoubted circumstance that it is a project of strategic necessity for Armenia, which essentially has a business card significance. Armenia cannot pretend to be a serious player, a serious partner in international logistics reforms, if there are no international level infrastructures or effective plans for their construction in the country. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the North-South with the logic of the nationwide program and significantly multiply the resources and effort directed to it.
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