“The same area that the railway used to run through during the Soviet era will be used. The length is around 42 kilometers, running through the Aras Valley. There is no privately owned land within that lot, as it passes through border strips and zones,” Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan said during the National Assembly’s question-and-answer session with the Government.
He was responding to a question from Marianna Ghahramanyan, a member of the 'Strong Armenia' faction, who asked what specific territory the TRIPP project encompasses, why the maps have not been published, and what the project’s starting and ending points are, including the routes of the roads and the boundaries of the areas on either side.
“The specifics concerning the road have not yet been finalized. Why? Because the road must meet parameters of regional significance. It cannot be built to just any technical specifications, as it would not be competitive,” the Deputy Prime Minister said, noting that it would run through the same southern section.
“The difficulty is simply that the connecting section on the Nakhijevan side is very narrow from a purely geographical perspective. That is why technical assessments are needed, including assessments concerning tunnels and alternatives without tunnels. The work in this regard has not yet been completed,” he said.
Regarding power lines, the Deputy Prime Minister expressed the view that the constraints related to electricity lines were not particularly significant, but they would need to be synchronized with the infrastructure and power-line connections coming from Azerbaijan. Calculations are currently underway in this regard and will be completed soon.
Acting in his capacity as chair of the session, National Assembly Speaker Ruben Rubinyan asked for clarification, noting that asking “How wide is TRIPP?” was equivalent to asking, “How wide is Zvartnots Airport?”
The Deputy Prime Minister responded that if the question concerned TRIPP’s legal width, there was no such legal category as the “width of a legal entity.” If it concerned the scope of concession rights, he said, it would need to be discussed in three dimensions to make the concept clear.
“If we are talking about the area to be used for exercising and implementing the concession rights, there will be a railway with one track, meaning a single train formation; there will be a road, most likely one that meets international standards; and there will be power lines. The configuration and design of the power lines are known: they will be similar to our high-voltage power lines,” the Deputy Prime Minister explained.
