Customs Post to be Constructed on Armenian-Turkish Border

The newspaper "Haykakan Jamanak" reports that the government intends to build a customs post on the Armenian-Turkish border in the village of Margar. This decision was included in the government's meeting today, which has authorized project estimation work to be commissioned through a single-source procurement procedure. According to the government, the timelines are tight, and therefore no tender will be announced. However, it is known that this government prefers to carry out everything without a tender, using a direct procurement procedure from predetermined entities, which carries corruption risks.

More than 28 million drams will be allocated for the design documentation. Overall, the construction of the entire customs post, including project works and the acquisition of necessary equipment, is estimated to cost around 733 million drams. The project will be carried out by "Arbak and Sons LLC," while the construction contractors will be "Artkon" and "Sahakyan Construction" LLCs. It is worth noting that on the other side of the Margar bridge lies the Armenian-Turkish border, which has been closed since 1993. The closed border briefly opened a couple of times this February when Armenia sent humanitarian aid to those affected by the earthquake in Turkey.