Supervision for the construction of the Rruga e Arbrit highway will cost taxpayers more than $4 million.
The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has recently announced open the tender for the independent supervision of the construction work with a 446 million lekë (approximately $4 million) limit fund. Meanwhile, construction for the Rruga e Arbrit highway has been going on since June.
This highway will be built by the private company Gjoka shpk. The project’s total cost, excluding the cost of supervision, according to the company, is €250 million, out of which €190 million will be the company’s and €60 the government’s. The highway will be 73.5 km long and, according to the feasibility study, several tunnels, the longest being the Murrizi Tunnel, and at least four bridges must be built.
Gjoka shpk will provide maintenance for the highway and the tunnels for 10 years, and, in return, it will have the right to impose a €4 highway fee.
The construction of the Rruga e Arbrit highway is the first project of the “one billion euro” plan, and will be financed through a public-private partnership scheme. As Exit has explained, these schemes are expensive and unfit for countries like Albania, where transparency is often lacking and corruption levels are high.
