North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

[Mher]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

Government approves amended agreement on privatization of Vorotan power plant

YEREVAN, February 19. / ARKA /. The Armenian government has approved today the updated and amended agreement on the privatization of Vorotan cascade of hydropower plants, signed last year with a US-based company.

The deal was signed on January 29 with ContourGlobal, a US-based company under which ContourGlobal is to purchase and modernize the Vorotan Hydro Cascade, a series of three hydroelectric power plants totaling 405 MW on the Vorotan River in southern Armenia, for a purchase price of $180 million. But the deal was not finalized. Officials would say it would be finalized after the sides reconciled some technical and pricing issues.

Energy and natural resources minister Yervand Zakharyan said at a Cabinet session today that the contract was revised 'for a balanced regulation of relations between the sides.'

This will be the largest single U.S. private investment in Armenia's history and the first U.S. investment in Armenia's energy sector. The Vorotan Hydro Cascade accounts for roughly 15 percent of the installed capacity of Armenia's electricity system and provides sufficient energy to power 250,000 homes.


Under the terms of the agreement, ContourGlobal Hydro Cascade, a direct and wholly owned subsidiary of ContourGlobal, will own and operate the three hydroelectric facilities located on the Vorotan river and will supply power to the Armenian grid under a long-term power purchase agreement.

ContourGlobal will also invest $70 million over the next six years in a refurbishment program to modernize the plants and improve their operational performance, safety, reliability, and efficiency. ContourGlobal expects the modernization to create 150 near-term jobs in addition to the 150 long-term technicians employed at the plants.

http://arka.am/en/news/business/government_approves_amended_agreement_on_privatization_of_vorotan_power_plant/#sthash.dGs6VXBA.dpuf

Though foreign ownership of the country's infrastructure is not usually something to be celebrated, it is at least a positive thing that it is not owned by Russia as it creates some diversification, and small amount of independence from total Russian control.

[Mher]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

Yerevan Expects Chinese Support For Iran-Armenia Rail Link

Emil Danielyan
Հրապարակված է՝ 27.03.2015

President Serzh Sarkisian on Friday called for an “active” Chinese involvement in the realization of his government’s ambitious plans to build a railway connecting Armenia with neighboring Iran.

Speaking on the third day of his state visit to Beijing, Sarkisian said the 470-kilometer railway could be part of a transnational “Silk Road economic zone” which China would like to set up along a vast geographic area.

“In this regard, Armenia expects an active participation of Chinese companies in the construction of the Armenia-Iran railway,” he said in a speech at Peking University. “That will ensure the region’s even development, which is fully in tune with China’s ‘peace for development’ motto.”

“At the same time, that would ensure China’s strong presence in the South Caucasus region and give impetus to bilateral China-Armenia relations,” added Sarkisian.

A Chinese firm, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), is already involved in the extremely ambitious project, having conducted a feasibility study and recommended a cost-effective route for the rail link. The study was commissioned in 2013 by Rasia FZE, a Dubai-based investment company. The latter had in turn a received 30-year Armenian government concession to build and manage the 305-kilometer section of the railway that would pass through Armenia.

Earlier this year, Armenia’s Deputy Transport Minister Artur Arakelian said that Rasia has been holding “very active negotiations” with unnamed Chinese investors interested in financing work on the Armenian section, which would cost an estimated $3 billion.

Visiting Yerevan in late January, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke of further progress made towards the construction of the railway. “There have been very good trilateral discussions and good decisions and we hope that [the project] will quickly move forward,” Zarif said without elaborating.

According to Sarkisian’s press office, the railway project was on the agenda of the Armenian president’s talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held on Thursday. The office did not report any concrete agreements to that effect reached by the two men.

Addressing Peking University students and professors, Sarkisian touted Armenia’s
“dynamically developing friendly relations” with China that were underlined by his joint declaration with Chinese President Xi Jinping adopted on Wednesday. Closer ties with Beijing are “one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy,” he said.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/26924486.html

[Shant03]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

While I support this type of growth, I wish Armenian companies would get involved to decrease the unemployment numbers.

[Mher]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

While I support this type of growth, I wish Armenian companies would get involved to decrease the unemployment numbers.

I don't believe there is a company in Armenia to take on this size of a project. There are only a few dozen such companies in the world. The company they have working on the North-South Highway is a major global company that has done many such projects.

It doesn't really matter much who manages the project because construction work is going to require a local work force and the same local people would have to be hired regardless of who is in charge.

There'll be a difference as far as a handful of specialized engineering and management jobs, but as far as the bulk of construction jobs are concerned, there wouldn't be a difference.

[Haykakan]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

Mher is right this will boost things in the short run but it is the long run that is way more important here. Infrastructure development is always a great idea and its effect on the economy can be huge and long lasting. I hope this gets done.

[Mher]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

Mher is right this will boost things in the short run but it is the long run that is way more important here. Infrastructure development is always a great idea and its effect on the economy can be huge and long lasting. I hope this gets done.

exactly, construction jobs are temporary anyway, and one of the issues of the Aremnian economy, and the reason for the disproportional fallout in 2009, is the heavy reliance on construction jobs.

the main issue is getting this done to create many permanent jobs.

[Shant03]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

Great points!

[Eddo211]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

You can also move military vehicles on the roads which gives strategic advantage to Armenian Generals.

[Mher]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

More Funding Secured For Armenian Highway Upgrades

Emil Danielyan
Հրապարակված է՝ 14.04.2015

A development bank founded by Russia and Kazakhstan provided the Armenian government on Tuesday with a $150 million loan that will finance the ongoing reconstruction of Armenia’s main highways stretching more than 550 kilometers to neighboring Georgia and Iran.

The chairman of the Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), Dmitry Pankin, signed a corresponding agreement in Yerevan with Armenian Transport and Communication Minister Gagik Beglarian after talks held with Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian.

In a statement issued after the signing ceremony, the EDB said the loan repayable in 20 years will finance work on a 20-kilometer highway section encompassing Armenia’s highest mountain pass close to the Iranian border.

The Kajaran pass situated over 3,000 meters above the sea level is frequently closed to traffic in winter months because of snowstorms and ice. The Armenian government did not explain just how the tortuous road, where serious accidents have not been uncommon, will be upgraded.

The EBD-funded work will be part of the government’s ambitious North-South project meant to facilitate the landlocked country’s access to the Georgian and Iranian ports. Another aim of the project worth an estimated $1.5 billion is to enable Iran to use Armenian and Georgian territory for large-scale freight shipments to and from Europe.

In 2009, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) lent the government $500 million for the first phase of the planned road upgrades. But it was not until 2012 that a Spanish construction firm contracted by the government began expanding and repaving two highways running south and northwest of Yerevan.

The total length of the two roads exceeds 90 kilometers. Their $280 million reconstruction is due to be completed by next year.

Pankin stressed the importance of the biggest road project in Armenia’s history in an interview with the Armenian news agency Arka. He said the reconstructed roads will reduce the cost and increase the speed of cargo transport through the country.

Armenia joined the EDB in 2009, three years after the bank’s establishment by Russia and Kazakhstan. Its government and business enterprises have obtained about $130 million in loans from the bank since then.

Pankin told Arka that the EDB will soon disburse a $40 million loan for the rehabilitation of Armenia’s irrigation networks. He revealed that the authorities in Yerevan are also seeking a separate budgetary credit and that the EDB is considering the request. “It is still too early to speak of our response,” he said.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/26955835.html

[Mher]

Re: North-South Highway/Iran-Armenia Railway

Some other infrastructure updates:

New Date Set For Iran-Armenia Energy Project
րապարակված է՝ 13.05.2015

Armenia and Iran will start building next month a third transmission line that will connect their power grids and increase Armenian electricity exports to the Islamic Republic, Energy Mnister Yervand Zakharian said on Wednesday.

Work on the project has repeatedly been postponed by the governments of the two neighboring states due to financial issues and obstacles resulting from international sanctions imposed on Iran.

An intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation co-headed by Zakharian and his Iranian counterpart Hamid Chitchian claimed to have cleared all hurdles to its implementation after a meeting held in Tehran in December.

Zakharian announced at the time that the high-voltage line’s construction will start in March and take 18 months. The new facility will allow Armenia to increase electricity supplies to Iran from the current 1.2 billion kilowatt/hours to up to 7 billion kilowatt/hours, he said.

That electricity is generated by Iranian natural gas delivered to Armenian thermal-power plants.

Zakharian on Wednesday spoke of June as the new date for the launch of the construction. He told reporters that the Armenian government will finance its share of the $120 million project with a loan be provided by the Iranian side.

The minister also said that the new Armenia-Iran line will be as powerful as the two existing ones combined.

The sharp increase in electricity exports anticipated by Yerevan will presumably require much higher volumes of Iranian gas supplies. According to government figures, Armenia buys around 500 million cubic meters of gas from Iran annually, compared with approximately 2 billion cubic meters imported from Russia.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27014505.html