More than 370 quake-proof schools to be built in Armenia within 15 years
More than 370 quake-proof schools will be built in Armenia over a period between 2015 and 2030 under the Asian Development Bank's credit program, Hrachya Petrosyan, head of the Armenian emergency ministry's National Seismic Protection Service, said Thursday at a news conference.
The total cost of this program is $617 million. The program was approved on July 23 at a Cabinet session.
«Some schools will be repaired and strengthened and others will be built,» Petrosyan said adding that seismic services and the urban planning ministry's specialists will be involved in the construction.
«Scholls will be reconstructed only if the reconstruction cost is no higher than 60% of the cost of construction of a new school. Otherwise, a new school will be constructed.»
Gurgen Namalyan, chief of the emergency ministry's division in charge of seismic construction, said that initially this program implied reconstruction of 450 schools, but in the government-approved program only 370 education establishments are subject to reconstruction or new construction.
«The Asian Development Bank's program was launched this spring, and $87 million will be earmarked for this purpose in the first five years for reconstruction or construction of new schools,» he said.
The first tranche is expected to come to the country under this program on October 1, 2015.
There are about 1,440 general education schools in Armenia. ---0----