The Myth of Vanadzor – Fioletovo Railway Construction

Since 2010, the construction projects on the Vanadzor – Fioletovo railway circulated in the media. South Caucasian Railway CJSC was to allocate 50% of the funds necessary for the implementation of the project, according to the preliminary agreement. The other part would be Government funding.

Thus, the project was ranked among top priorities for 2012, and the Minister of Transport and Communication Manuk Vardanyan said that design works would soon be completed and the construction would commence.

Several months following the minister’s announcement, the Director General of the South-Caucasian CJSC Viktor Rebets announced that construction is not economically profitable and that they did not intend to invest in the project.

Despite Rebets’s very clear statement, the government included this project in the budget statement for 2013, according to which the design works were to be completed and measures taken towards preparation of construction works.

However, in 2014 draft budget there is no mention of this project, which probably reflects the fact that not only these works were not carried out, but they were actually pushed to the background.

We were recently informed from the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies that the Vanadzor-Fioletovo railway project, 7 years later, is at the stage of “attracting potential investors.”