Road costs soar/ The government adds 260 million euros to the bills

Through a sudden decision, the government approved three days ago a significant increase in costs for the main axes of the country, which are in the process of construction or will be tendered soon.

The decision of the Council of Ministers approved on August 12 changes the Unique List of Projects of National Importance, which was approved only 5 months ago, in March of this year

Capital publishes exclusive documents that show that only for three main axes, the cost has increased by 260 million euros compared to the value of 5 months ago. It is about the expansion of the Tirana-Durres road, the construction of the old Ndroqi road as well as the Elbasan bypass.

Increasing

According to the documents, in the list approved in March of this year, the total cost for the expansion of the Tirana-Durres road was set according to the project at 205 million euros. But with the list changed three days ago, the bill for this road has increased to 298.8 million euros or 45.4 percent more

The increase is much heavier in the other two projects. For the construction of the old road Tirana-Ndroq-Plepa in the list approved 5 months ago, the total cost was estimated at 39.8 million euros. But with the list approved three days ago, the bill that citizens will pay for the construction of this road has increased to 87 million euros or almost 2.2 times.

There is also a doubling for the Elbasan Bypass bill. This project was determined to cost 120 million euros. But with the latest decision, the government has doubled the cost of this work to 240 million euros.

For these three projects alone, Albanian citizens will pay 260 million euros more than was determined. According to the government, the reason why the cost has increased so much is related to the increase in the prices of materials, since their projects were done years ago.

Likewise, a new project was added to the new list, which was not part of the existing list of projects of national importance. It is about the Elbasan-Lekaj axis, which will cost 360 million euros.

Before costs, heads flew

The change in the list of projects of national importance was the main reason for the changes in the government a few days ago. Capital has learned that the Ministry of Finance was reluctant to accept the arbitrary increase in costs, requesting that the feasibility study for the works be redone. This is because the increase in costs could make some of the projects unfeasible.

But instead of redoing the feasibility studies, Edi Rama solved it differently by changing the Minister of Finance. Ervin Mete left to make way for Petri Malaj, a change that has immediately unlocked the increase in costs. Mr. Malaj did not have the same hesitations as his predecessor and immediately signed the new list with the significant increase in costs for these roads.

But apart from the Minister of Finance, another head that flew because of the list of projects of national importance was that of the head of SASPAC. Even Jona Suli, the former director of the institution that coordinates projects with foreign funding, had reservations about the increase in costs. But even this impasse was resolved by appointing Eridana Çanon in her place, who previously held the position of director of the Agency for Good Governance./ Kapitali