Tirana road extension project cuts into national park territory

TIRANA, June 27 – A Tirana Municipality project to extend the Elbasani street and cut trees from the territory of the capital’s national park has angered both environmentalists and the opposition Socialist Party. The project will extend the road to 6 lanes compared to two lanes currently.
Environmentalists and civil society activists have staged protests denouncing what they call an urban massacre in one of Tirana’s few remaining green areas. They claim the intervention is being carried out without a project and a construction permit.
Artan Lame, head of the Cultural Heritage Foundation has called on the municipality to make the project transparent to the public.
“This illegal construction should stop immediately and if there is actually a project behind it, the municipality has a legal obligation to make it public,” said Lame during a protest last weekend.
Opposition leader and former Tirana Mayor Edi Rama has described the tree cutting in the capital’s national park as an environmental massacre made for clientelism. “The truth is the project is being implemented at a time when legal procedures have not ended yet,” says Rama.
Describing the road extension as unreasonable, Rama says the intervention is being used as an alibi to pave the way to the interests of those closely connected to the Prime Minister.
However, the Tirana Municipality has described the road extension as a necessity for the capital. “The Elbasani street is an important national hub as the entry and exit gate for the country’s east and southeast and one of the urban streets in Tirana which since time needs extension to meet the needs of the community and inhabitants of neighbouring communes.”
“The extension of the Elbasan street will considerably ease traffic and lower mobility costs, improve the quality of life for Tirana citizens and help the further development of the economy.”
The municipality says is investing in the rehabilitation and extension of green areas in the park and has a project to give the park the absent legal status. Some 500 trees have been planted in the park in the past 9 months and another 3,000 are expected to be planted within this year.