YEREVAN, JULY 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultation on July 10 during which issues relating to the construction process of North-South highway and the existing problems were discussed, the PM’s Office told Armenpress.

“We need to understand what has been done so far in the context of the implementation of the project, what is the situation, what problems we face and how we imagine the project’s continuation in terms of finance and implementation. The North-South project is perhaps the most large-scale project in the history of the third Republic, at least in terms of financial and state debt overload. Unfortunately, from the very start of the project’s implementation we hear more about problems, than their solutions, and our task is to understand the causes of such situation, as well as find solutions. I have also talked to the representatives of the Armenian law enforcement agencies on this topic, and I think that they should also be interested in this situation. At the moment, of course, I don’t have any presumptions, but the media reports, information coming from different platforms, as well as officials creates some concerns. We need to understand to what extent these concerns can have civil-legal and criminal consequences”, the PM said.

The project representatives reported the PM on the problems in the already operating parts of the highway, the shortcomings and the ongoing construction works.

PM Pashinyan gave concrete instructions to the responsible persons and attached importance to ruling out construction quality issues in the further implementation of the project.

“No highway with doubtful quality must be constructed under our government: in other words, the construction quality of the road should be guaranteed”, Nikol Pashinyan said, urging to report on the implementation process of the instructions given within a short period of time.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan