Residents from the Rinas area of Tirana have protested yesterday and today near the roundabout next to Mother Theresa Airport.
The Albanian Road Authority announced last week that starting 1 May, for “an indefinite period”, the main road leading to the airport would be one direction only. Those coming from the north would be redirected towards Kruje, adding a significant amount of time onto the journey.
The authority said this was due to an increase in the number of flights and therefore traffic, meaning the road would be one way to enable two lanes of traffic for those going to catch flights.
As a response, residents of the area have been protesting for several days claiming the diversion causes significant problems in their daily lives.
They told the media that taking their children to school now takes up to two hours and said it is impossible to access medical centres, markets, or the local cemetery.
Today’s protest saw local children join as they were unable to get to school.
“ARA did not ask anyone before the decision, we woke up in the morning and saw the signs. We will stay here to protest. ARA has not reacted,” said one citizen.
Another said, “we have not had any communication from officials, just in the media. It is not only these three villages which are penalised, even those from the north trying to go to the airport. We cannot go to our agricultural land, we cannot take the children to school, we cannot go to health centres,” another said.
