The pre-qualification tender for the Sisian-Kajaran section of the North-South road project was announced today. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government.

"You know how strategically important this project is for us. The meaning of the [aforesaid] tender is the following: In the first stage, we invite the organizations which submit a bid to carry out the construction of that road. You know that cost of the project is several hundred million dollars. There has never been an investment program of this scale in the history of Armenia's independence.

As a result of our discussions in recent times—I mean the topic of opening communications in the region—we have, in fact, reworded the North-South project and turned it into a North-South-East-West project, and we hope to implement it at a great pace. This means that one of the branches of that road of the Armenian crossroads will connect Armenia with Iran, the other branch—Azerbaijan with Armenia, and later Nakhichevan and Turkey, too. We place this project in that general context. We should hope that by the end of the year we will have a construction company that will carry out the work.

Of course, the East-West section is not done. But in progress we will very quickly implement that section as well—in the context of reaching political arrangements.

The pre-qualification phase will last 70 days, during which the companies will submit a bid, after which the qualified companies will have the opportunity to participate in the construction tender.

We are currently carrying out specific works for the construction of the Armenian section of the Yeraskh-Julfa Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway. Soon the process will be in full operation," the Armenian PM added.