North-South transport corridor to open new page in Armenia-Iran relations
The North-South transport corridor will open a new page in relations between Armenia and Iran, Homayoun Haeri, an advisor to the Iranian energy minister, said Wednesday at an Armenian-Iranian business forum.
Stressing the necessity of building up trade turnover between the two countries, he said that it will be possible to achieve this goal by opening exhibitions, exchanging visits and improving transport infrastructure. In this context, he said, it is very important to build North-South motor road.
Haeri said that the countries have untapped potential for expanding their trade and economic ties and pointed out successful cooperation in energy, culture and healthcare sectors as examples.
The goal of 556 km-long North-South Transport Corridor 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.
On December 29, 2015 the first two sections of the North-South transport corridor opened. The first section that stretches from Yerevan to Artashat has become a six-lane road, while the second section which is from Yerevan to Ashtarak has become four-lane road. Both have a 100-110 km/h speed limit and make up a total length of 31 km.
Funds are being released by the Asian Development Bank periodically through a multi-tranche 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.
Currently the construction of the road is underway from Artashat to Ashtarak and from Ashtarak to Talin.
The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology plans also the implementation of separate smaller projects at various sections of the road in order to end the construction both in southern and northern directions by 2019. --0---