SQUARE TO REMAIN CLOSED FOR ANOTHER YEAR

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04:55 pm | October 06, 2009 | society

Freedom Square has been closed down since last October for underground
parking construction. The construction site is closed so that nobody
will see anything. What is going on behind the gates and when will
the deep hole be closed?

"The Opera Square will be open in a year. The Yerevan city council is
following up on the construction and at the present, we are not behind
schedule," said first deputy director of the "Investment program for
construction" Felix Afyan.

According to him, builders are working in two sites. In the first site,
they have reached the high floor and in the second, construction of
the first floor is still underway. Felix Afyan told "A1+" that the
underground section will be ready in early 2010 and then construction
will begin on the top section of the square, which implies the "return"
of the statues of Hovhannes Tumanyan and Alexander Spendiaryan.

Let us remind that the construction began in October 2008 with the
project by "ArmProject" and funding by the Italian "Renco" company. The
three-story parking lot is foreseen for 500 cars. There will be
valet parking. According to the agreement with the Italian company,
there will be underground parking lots at the Aznavour, Shahumyan,
Myasnikyan streets and the French Square with the purpose to ease
the pile-ups in the center of the city.