YEREVAN, April 14. / ARKA /. EurAsEC's Anti-Crisis Fund, managed by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), will provide Armenia with a $150 million to build a 20.5 km section of the North-South transport corridor from the town of Agarak to Kajaran in the southern Armenian province of Syunik, EDB board chairman Dmitry Pankin said in an exclusive interview with ARKA news agency.

An agreement to that end was signed today in Yerevan by the EDB and the government of Armenia.
According to Pankin, part of the section will be rehabilitated and another part will be built from scratch. The section is part of an international transport corridor running through the territory of Armenia from the border with Iran to the border with Georgia.

Pankin said this project becomes especially important because of the ongoing transport blockade of Armenia by Azerbaijan from the east and Turkey from the west

"This highway is part of the only land route from Russia to Armenia and further in the direction of Iran," he said.

The goal of the project is to upgrade Armenia’s main 556 km long 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. 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. According to Armenian officials, the cost of building the North-South transport corridor is estimated at $ 1.5 billion.

The Armenian government earlier signed a $500 million framework loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank to finance the project.

According to Pankin, the implementation of this project will cut by 50% transport costs on the rehabilitated road sections, increase the average speed of traffic by 40%, cut also operating costs for the maintenance of the highway in good condition, create about 1,750 new jobs, boost transit traffic through the territory of Armenia from India, Iran and Pakistan and help to partially overcome the consequences of the transport blockade of Armenia.

Also, according to him, there will be indirect effects, such as increased access of farmers from remote areas to the consumer markets, retail and warehouse infrastructure in the central part of the country. It will make also basic health and educational centers more accessible to population of remote regions.-0-