Thirre tunnel to be open in May

TIRANA, March 10 – One of the tunnels of the Thirre Tunnel will open May 15, according to Transport deputy minister Ernest Noka.
Work will continue on the other one.
The tunnels are part of the Rreshen-Kalimash road segment which goes to the border with Kosovo.
One was inaugurated last year just before the June 28 parliamentary election but following problems it was closed in October. The second one has never been open.
The 5.6-kilometer tunnel and the road segment turned into a hot political issue after the opposition Socialist accused the governing Democrats of abusing public money as the cost of the segment increased from 418 million euro to almost double.
They accused Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the then transport minister Lulzim Basha of trying to earn personal financial gain. They also took Basha to court which turned down the request due to some procedural violations.
The opposition still mentions the road segment project, which was built from the US-Turkish Bechtel Enka Corporation, as a clear sign of corruption in the way that the government has abused with the public money.
Opening of the tunnel will be very important as that serves to bring hundreds of thousand of Kosovo tourists to the Albanian coast in the summer. They make up the bulk of the number of tourists visiting Albania.