Government attacked on collapse of tunnel

TIRANA, Nov 17 – The opposition Socialist Party is highly critical of the Democratic party government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha who was hasty in inaugurating one tunnel at Thirre of the Rreshen-Kalimash road segment.
The tunnel has been closed since early October and the US-Turkish Bechtel-Enka company is trying to make repairs and also complete work on the other tunnel.
Last weekend the media reported an incident inside the tunnel. Part of it fell and the company needs to make repairs to return it to normal.
Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi said Tuesday everything was back on track.
The opposition also sent a delegation of 13 lawmakers to visit the tunnel. They were not let in due to the threat of the repair work inside. But they were also hampered by a small group of Democratic supporters or militants who tried to prevent them getting near the tunnel.
A manager of the works there, Daren Mort, said they had a contract until next summer with the government.
“We have our client that is the Directorate of Roads and all measures have been taken for the operation of the tunnel in order to avoid having any incident or technical problem. The Rr촨en-Kalimash road segment is not yet completed and the tunnel is under construction. The part of the tunnel which has problems with landslides is situated at the southern part of the tunnel and not at the part which was open during the summer. Our contract with the government envisages that we have to complete this construction by the upcoming summer,” he told opposition lawmakers.
The opposition has been attacking the government of corruption and abuse of public funding in that project.
It has criticized the then transport minister, Lulzim Basha, now interior minister, for receiving personal profits from the public funding. They say that the high cost of the road does not justify its quality.
The government has denied the accusation and considered the project the biggest ever in the country.
The 60-kilometer road segment, including a 5.5-kilomter two-way tunnel, has cost, officially, more than 800 million Euros from 418 million Euros signed at the start. The opposition says its cost has passed more than one billion Euros, too high for one of Europe’s poorest countries.