Transport Min: New Road Iran-Armenia Won’t Affect Shikahogh Forest

TRANSPORT MINISTER: NEW ROAD IRAN-ARMENIA WILL NOT AFFECT SHIKAHOGH
FOREST RESERVE

YEREVAN, JUNE 25. ARMINFO. Robert Kocharyan has approved project of
construction of a new road to Iran passing by Shikahogh forest
preserve, Minister of Transport and Communication of Armenia Andranik
Manukyan told journalists today.

He says the length of the road will total 96 km. Which is by 7 km
longer, with the maximum height to be 2,160 meters as against 2,005
meters of the project via the reserve. However, comparing the new
project with the operative road to Iran, the minister pointed out the
preferential differences of the new one. In particular, the slope of
the new road will be an average of 5.8% against 8% of the operative
road with the maximum tilt being 8% against present 14%. The smaller
tilting will save $1.6 mln on fuel and $70,000 on exploitation. The
new road will have no serpentines and its width will be 6.6
meters. Its maximum load will be 80 tons against present 36
tons. Manukyan says that the construction has already been started and
the second road connecting Iran and Armenia – Kapan-
Tsap-Shvanidzor-Shishkert-Meghri will be put into exploitation in
2006. The cost of the project is 9.3 bln AMD will not be changed
seriously.

743 cars including 276 trucks pass via the Iran-Armenia road a
day. The new road will allow to enhance the traffic. “We have already
informed the Iranian Transport Ministry and they have welcomed the
news,” says Manukyan.

Commenting on alternative projects Manukyan says that 4 km of the
project p roposed by the Ecology Ministry and ecological NGOs ran via
the Shikahogh preserve. “Our project did not affect the preserve and
its approval is not anybody’s victory or defeat. Simply we found a
scenario considering strategic, economic, technical and ecological
interests at one and the same time,” says Manukyan. Nevertheless the
project running via Shikahogh was the best in technical-economic
terms. This project was approved as early as 1990 by 12 departments of
Armenian SSR.

To remind, 16 km of the Armenia-Iran road were to run via the
Shikahogh preserve – a circumstance causing protest of ecologists who
said that the project would destroy the preserve’s unique bio
diversity.