THE WORLD’S LONGEST ROPE-WAY TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN TATEV

ARMENPRESS
July 14, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS: Today an agreement on construction of the
rope-way to Tatev has been signed between the member of the council
of Armenian National Competitiveness fund Artashes Kazakhetsian and
the sales vice-manager of the Swiss rope-way construction "Garaventa"
enterprise Peter Bauman.

Within the frameworks of the agreement within a year’s period a
rope-way will be constructed taking from the Halidzor village of
the Syunik province to Tatev of overall 5.7 km length. The contract
overall costs ~H6.8 million. With its type the rope-way will be the
longest one in the world.

Executive Director of Armenian National Competitiveness Fund Bekor
Papazian told Armenpress that the rope-way is intended to be exploited
all year round taking 25 passengers at a time. The construction works
of the rope-way will start from September this year and finish in
September 2010.

According to the representative of Swiss "Garaventa" company P. Bauman
their company is among the most prominent ones in the world with a
turnover of ~H500-600 million annually. In the whole world "Garaventa"
annually constructs 150-200 rope-ways having constructed overall 17
000 rope-ways in its history.

B. Papazian said that the construction of the rope-way is a part
of the "Rebirth and reconstruction of Tatev" three-year project
of the Armenian National Competitiveness Fund which kicked of in
February this year. The project intends besides the construction
of the rope-way to entirely reconstruct the Tatev Monastic complex,
build a high rated hotel in the Halidzor village and make investments
in the seven villages of the region aimed at their development.

The entire project is assessed ~H25 million. The project will be
finished in three years. "It will have a great importance in this
region in respect of the development of tourism. Only with the
construction of the rope-way the number of tourists in Tatev will
increase three times," B. Papazian said.

Armenian Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsian reminded that the project
has been approved during the latest outgoing session of the Government
in Syunik province.

"This is one of those projects which are of great approval by the
states. This is a good example of state-private sector cooperation
which will have great results. These prominent investments are
not only directed towards the development of tourism but also will
bring complicated engineering solutions to our region," the Economy
Minister noted.