Albania-Kosova highway asks for more funding

TIRANA, Aug 25 – The Rreshen-Kalimash highway has seen a price increase from 418 million Euros to 630 million Euros, according to government sources. The executive acknowledged that the Bechtel-Enka U.S.-Turkish corporation building the road had asked for an additional 210 million Euros to complete the road, including a 5.5 kilometer-long tunnel.
The highway, which links the port of Durres with Kosova, is the country’s largest public works project in decades, however, its has been dogged by allegations of irregularities and corruption.
Former transport minister, now Foreign Minister, Lulzim Basha was stripped of his parliamentary immunity late last year to be investigatties in the tender for the construction of the highway.
The Prosecutor-General began an investigation last year into alleged irregularities surrounding the awarding of the tender.
Several other officials from the roads department of the Transport Ministry are being investigated, along with Basha.
Officials have promised that the road link will be completed by June of next year, just before general elections and very likely will become a campaign theme for the governing political party.
(Tirana Times Staff)
ed for alleged irregulari