Epress.am News from Armenia
In the coming days, a 223-km highway in eastern Georgia which connects the Azerbaijani-populated Kvemo Kartli region with the Armenian-populated Javakheti region will be operational. The road will also lead to the Georgian state border with Turkey and Armenia, reports the News Georgia, citing Georgia’s Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure.
The road was financed by the US-based Millennium Challenge Corporation, which allocated $203 million USD for construction. Work began in the spring of 2008. Further, 15 new bridges were built as part of the same program, which envisages rehabilitation of infrastructure and development of enterprises in the region.
Recall that earlier, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said that the development of road infrastructure in Javakheti has political and economic importance for the country.
“With the new road, we have once again rediscovered Javakheti’s potential, which was almost completely cut off from the rest of Georgia because of poor roads, and it was easier for residents to establish relations with neighboring Armenia [than Georgia] and sell their products there. Hundred thousand citizens of Ninotsminda, Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsikhe [cities in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region] will now subscribe to the general economic developments in the country,” said the Georgian leader.