First Street Refurbished In Gyumri’s Old Town

Officials inaugurated on Wednesday the first street that has been refurbished in Gyumri’s as part of a $10 million reconstruction of its historic old town initiated by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian.

A relevant program drawn up by Armenia’s Central Bank and a private charity calls for capital repairs of the two main streets in Gyumri’s central Kumayri district mainly constructed in the 19th century. This is aimed at attracting more tourists and stimulating economic activity in the impoverished city. Old houses to be renovated there over the next two years will offer commercial space to businesspeople interested in opening shops, restaurants and centers for traditional arts or handicrafts.

Work on one of those streets began in March, with construction teams laying new underground gas and water pipes, paving it with granite tiles and installing new benches and street lighting in the following months. The radically renovated Rustaveli Street was inaugurated at a ceremony attended by Karapetian, Gyumri Mayor Samvel Balasanian and other government officials.

Karapetian said the reconstruction of the other Kumayri street is due to start in March 2018.“We will definitely complete the Kumayri historical center project,” he told reporters.

Karapetian said the project’s implementation will continue even if he is not reappointed as prime minister after President Serzh Sarkisian serves out his final term in April.

Visiting Gyumri in February, the premier promised in that his family will invest $500,000 of its own money in the project mostly financed from private sources. The family has since purchased a building at Kumayri which is currently undergoing capital repairs.

Gyumri has still not fully recovered from a catastrophic 1988 earthquake that killed 25,000 people and left hundreds of thousands of others homeless in this and other parts of northwestern Armenia. The city has long had one of the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the country.

The tourism development scheme was launched ahead of a large-scale reconstruction of many other Gyumri streets and roads which have been in an increasingly poor condition in the last few years.

The Armenian government and the municipal administration secured last year $25 million in funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the planned street repairs. The money will also be used for installing new and energy-efficient lighting and upgrading the municipal drainage infrastructure.