ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: NEWLY OPENED NORTH AVENUE IS SECOND VISIT CARD OF YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Nov 16, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. With the construction of North
Avenue, Yerevan has received a second visit card from the urban
development and architectural point of view – after Republic Square,
the Armenian president Robert Kocharian stated at the opening ceremony
of North Avenue in Yerevan on November 16.

In his words, the construction of North Avenue has contributed to
construction’s becoming the main driving force of the Armenian economy.

About 20% of the country’s GDP is now formed in this sector. Over
the past few years, construction organizations have been equipped
with new technologies and machinery, which has had a positive impact
on the quality and implementation period of construction work. The
president underlined that tens of thousands of people have got jobs
in the construction sector.

Besides, the number of migrant builders has declined thanks to it
over the past three years.

The Armenian president added that investments in North Avenue will
continue as the ground floors of buildings in North Avenue will be
occupied with trade and service enterprises where over a thousand
people will receive well-paid constant jobs.

According to the former mayor of Yerevan Murad Muradian, the problem
of constructing North Avenue was in the center of attention of the
former Yerevan municipality for decades. In 1980, the city council
of Yerevan announced a tender for construction of North Avenue but
urban development was not done due to "many objective and subjective
reasons".

The mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakarian said that the famous architect
Alexander Tamanian attached special importance to North Avenue in
Yerevan’s master plan developed in the 1920s. According to him, the
decision on construction of North Avenue was made by R. Kocharian in
1999. The project was designed by a group of well-known architects
headed by Narek Sargsian and implemented by the Yerevan municiplaity’s
investment programs implementation office. The construction of North
Avenue started in 2002. The total area of constrcution has made 320
thousand square meters, investments of 101 billion drams (at the
current exchange rate – about 315.6 million dollars) have been made
mainly by local and foreign private organizations.

It was mentioned that the area of North Avenue was previoulsy
occupied by houses "not in line with urban development and everyday
life standards".

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress