Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 26
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
Armenia may revise an agreement with Iranian company Rasia FZE on construction of the Armenia-Iran railway, Vahan Martirosyan, minister of transport, communications and information technologies of Armenia, said at a press conference Sept. 26.
This was no big surprise, since the illusory nature of the project itself was evident from the very beginning. Investors are in no hurry to put money in a project that is so problematic because of a heap of economic and, most importantly, political problems.
The issue of restoration of railway communication between Russia and Georgia through Abkhazia won’t be resolved until the situation, which emerged after the August 2008 war in Georgia, changes.
In addition, the railway infrastructure, demolished after 1992, requires huge financial injections, and no investor familiar with the real prospects, or rather, the hopelessness of the railway project, is ready for that.
Armenia’s last hope – to sign an agreement with Rasia FZE, a private Iranian company, which was supposed to attract an investor for the construction of the railway – also faded.
“There is no progress and we met with representatives of the company with a proposal to speed up all procedures, otherwise Armenia is ready to revise the agreement with Rasia FZE,” Martirosyan said.
The minister noted that according to preliminary agreements (the discussion has been going on for several years), Rasia FZE was supposed to conduct research and submit a project to investors, but the process was delayed.
According to preliminary estimates (the final feasibility study for the project is not yet available), the cost of the project is $3.2 billion. No one will invest such funds in a project that is doomed to failure. By the way, Armenia, for its part, for several years has tried to attract private investors to construction of the Iran-Armenia railway, but to no avail, either.
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Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency’s Russian news service