TIRANA, April 15- China State Construction Engineering Corporation has offered to complete the remaining 27 km of the Arbri road linking Albania to neighboring Macedonia for three years for a total of 21 billion lek (Euro 147 million), Transport Minister Edmond Haxhinasto has unveiled.
Speaking at a hearing with the parliamentary legal committee this week, minister Haxhinasto said China’s CSCEC, has offered to complete to complete the highway at 25 percent less compared to what the Albanian Road Authority had estimated.
“This is the first time the Chinese government has agreed not to oblige the beneficiary country of providing sovereign guarantee,” he said.
Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani said government would provide Euro 20 to 30 million annually for the construction of the road which is financed by China’s Exim Bank and also provide a traffic guarantee in case of insufficient traffic in the new toll highway.
China State Construction Engineering Corporation will be responsible for the construction, operation, maintenance and management of the Arbri Road, considered vital for the underdeveloped northeastern region of Dibra and trade exchanges with neighbouring Macedonia, says government in a draft law submitted to Parliament.
The draft law envisages the contract with CSCEC will be signed under a special negotiation procedure which will be supervised by a contract negotiation commission and foreign consultant, avoiding tender procedures. Government says it chose this special form of direct negotiation to speed up procedures and construction of the remaining part of the highway which will be country’s second largest after the completion of the Durres-Kukes highway linking Albania to Kosovo in 2009.
CSCEC, also known as China Construction, will build the remaining 26.8 km which is considered the most difficult segment because of including 15 bridges medium-sized and large buildings and two 2.6-km and 560 metre-long tunnels and four intersections. Due to the difficult terrain, the two-lane road is expected to have a speed limit of 50-60 km/h.
The project is also expected to boost trade exchanges with landlocked Macedonia and make access to Durres Port easier. In addition, the tourism sector is also expected to get boost as tourists from Macedonia, where more than a quarter of the population is ethnic Albanian, are the second top foreign visitors to Albania.
The new road is expected to cut travel distance to neighbouring Macedonia to only 70 km, down from a 180 km currently.
Some 31.6 km of the Arbri Road are still under construction and 25.7 km have been left without investment, including the costly Qafe Murrizi tunnel. The double bore tunnel is 2.5 km long with an elevation of 934 m, the ministry has earlier said.
The construction of the Arbri road got the green light last December at a China-CEE summit in Belgrade where the emerging superpower pledged $10 billion in infrastructure projects for Central and Eastern European countries.
