TIRANA, Dec. 2 – The Tirana- Elbasan highway tunnel, cutting distance to the central Albanian city of Elbasan by 70 percent will be totally funded by the state budget, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said on Wednesday after authorizing the General Roads Directorate to open the tender for the most important infrastructural project government intends to build during this second term of office until 2013.
Berisha’s declaration came as a surprise following previous announcement by government officials lobbying to borrow from European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to finance the Tirana-Elbasan highway. The project is expected to cost around 300 million euros.
Under the 2011 budget, government total funds for the national roads network is worth 34.7 billion lek (347 million dollars), 47 million dollars more than the revised 2010 budget in which spending was cut by 39 billion lek (390 million dollars) in an effort to keep public debt at 59.5 percent and halve budget deficit to 3.1 percent of the GDP.
Government also announced the opening of tender procedures to build the third lot of the Arbri Road linking Albania to Macedonia, the second most important project, also expected to finish by 2013.
Highway Tunnel
The tunnel, whose tender will be declared open soon, is expected to be completed within 18 months once the contract has been signed and possibly open to traffic within 2012, one year before the mandate of the ruling coalition expires in order to avoid electoral campaign claims, said Prime Minister Sali Berisha said last month.
The Tirana-Elbasan highway will be the first segment of southern road axis and an important hub of the Corridor 8 project with Italy, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
The highway, expected to cut the distance to Elbasan to 31 kilometres, down from 48 currently, will have four lanes and two tunnels, 2.3 and 2.1 km long each, saving passengers to the central Albanian city of Elbasan 40 minutes compared to the current mountainous road.
Designed to follow the shortest possible trajectory, the new highway will have a maximum speed of 110 km/h, taking passengers only 15 to 20 minutes to arrive in Elbasan. It is considered the biggest infrastructural project government intends to build in this four-year term after the Durres-Kukes-Morine highway linking Albania to Kosovo, whose works were only fully completed last October after the opening of the second Thirra tunnel.
