Parliament approves loan deal with IDB

TIRANA, May 23 – On Monday, the parliamentary economy and trade committees approved a 223 million dollar loan agreement with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to finance the new Tirana-Elbasan highway. The deal was approved with the votes of the majority members of committee while opposition lawmakers boycotted the session in protest over the electoral race in Tirana following the May 8 local elections. The 17-year loan, with an interest rate of around five percent, will fund the construction of the four-lane road, which includes a mountain tunnel. The total cost of the project is estimated at about $400 million (280 million Euros). A few weeks ago, Greece’s Aktor officially started works to build a 2.3 km tunnel as part of a new highway directly linking Tirana to the neighboring city of Elbasan. The Tirana-Elbasan highway will be the first segment of the southern road axis and an important hub of the Corridor 8 project with Italy, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The highway, expected to reduce the distance to Elbasan from 48 to 31 kilometers will have four lanes and two tunnels– 2.3 and 2.1 km long eachسhortening the driving time from Tirana to Elbasan to only 40 minutes. It is considered the biggest infrastructural project of the government’s 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 Thirre tunnel.