INVESTING DEEP: YEREVAN METRO GETS CONTINUED ASSISTANCE FROM EUROPEAN DONORS
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow
05.12.12 | 12:19
Work on upgrading Yerevan’s Metro will continue after the project has
received a joint assistance of EUR 15 million (about $19.7 million)
from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Neighborhood Investment
Facility (NIF).
On Tuesday Yerevan Metro managers, accompanied by European Union
Ambassador Traian Hristea and EBRD Yerevan Office head Valeriu Razlog,
conducted an inspection tour of the underground, also offering media an
opportunity to see the work of the metro from inside and the changes
of recent years.
The Metro Improvement Project was launched in 2010, with EUR 15 million
allocated for the first stage of the project. The EBRD says that the
investment has helped “the metro security, sustainable development
and energy efficiency”. The second stage of improvement work, also
worth EUR 15 million, was launched in August. In particular, the EBRD
issued a EUR 5 million (about $6.5 million) sovereign credit which by
the end of 2012 will be co-financed with the EIB’s EUR 5 million loan
tranche and the EU NIF’s additional EUR 5 million investment grant. The
loan is provided for 15 years, with a grace period of three years.
The state-owned Yerevan Metro was built in 1981. Now it stretches 13.4
kilometers and operates 10 stations. In 2011, more than 17 million
passengers used the metro services. Metro Director General Paylak
Yayloyan says before the upgrade many systems of the facility had
not undergone renovation since the day of construction.
Yayloyan says that the money allocated at the first phase of the
renovation project was spent on the repairs of the rolling stock,
the rails and energy supply units, as well as for financing the
purchases of a technical maintenance train and pumping equipment for
water drainage in the tunnels.
“Due to the funding economized at the first stage we also managed to
completely modernize and repair eight carriages,” said the director.
The donor organizations providing the loan and the grant expect that
the investment project for the extension of the drainage tunnel at the
second stage of the program will result in significant power savings
due to the reduction of the cost of water drainage, which, according
to preliminary estimates, should be reduced by 50 percent. It is also
expected that the program will help the Metro improve the quality
and efficiency of its service, as well as enhance its operational
efficiency and safety of passengers.
The Metro director does not consider it possible to open new stations
in the immediate future, even though two new stations, in the Ajapnyak
and Arabkir administrative districts of Yerevan, are planned to be
constructed by 2020. Yayloyan says that the priority today is not
expansion, but preservation of the existing facilities.
“The most important thing today is to solve safety problems, change
the escalators, the ventilation equipment, etc. It is more important
than the construction of new stations. The presence of a metro for
such a small city as Yerevan is already a positive thing,” he said.
Yayloyan said that the doubling of the metro fare in July 2011 (from
50 to 100 drams, or about 13 to 26 cents) increased Metro revenues
by 40 percent, although the number of passengers decreased by 20-25
percent (according to the director, now an average of 50,000 people
use the metro on a daily basis). According to Yayloyan, the sum was
not directed at increasing salaries of employees, but at solving
safety problems.
“We put the safety of our passengers before our own stomach,” the
Metro director commented to ArmeniaNow’s question.
From: A. Papazian