Prime Minister Edi Rama’s address at ceremony marking the start of work on construction of new Delvina-Kardhiq national road:

 

Greetings!

I am very pleased we are finalizing today a long process, because, as the Minister stated earlier, a lot has been said about the Delvina – Kardhiq road project which has also been a recurrent electoral promise over the years. Ceremonies even have taken place to inaugurate this road since 2007. The road’s entire length was even included in the imaginary 10 000 km of roads the previous government claimed it had built, but indeed it was part of the factual inventory of the roads that were never built.

Another road that never completed and, as just the Director noted, the road project was designed from scratch, whereas the tunnel and the final segment that will practically link Delvina and Saranda are being constructed now. They are being constructed now since they were not included in the previous project at all. In other words, they planned to build a national road according to their way of doing things, just like they used to do by misusing funding and charging the debt on the Albanian citizens. Just imagine! The other six-km long segment linking Delvina and Saranda would remain then in its previous miserable state.

This story has finally come to an end and in fact the centuries-old history of Kardhiq, Fushë-Bardhë, and Zhulat, each previously having 200-300 houses that today are almost totally depopulated because they are completely left out any kind of development project, it will not take a turn not simply as a history of these villages, but as the story of an area  with practically a great potential for tourism development, with significant potential for economic development and on the other hand, it also has a tremendous potential for the national economy, because this road brings a great transformation to the general mobility and it serves tourism development.

If the distance between Gjirokastra and Saranda has been shortened now, although still in a distance and traffic frequency that does not encourages an intensive tourist inflow, Gjirokastra and Saranda will soon become one. Meanwhile, the road linking Saranda with the upper areas passing through Kardhiq will shorten the distance significantly.

The new road’s track and the new project is nothing but a reconceptualization of today’s roadway standards a building a road that has been used since the prehistory by the Illyrians, Romans, the Turks, Italians and Germans. New Kardhiq – Delvina road is actually an important segment that will ultimately avoid the difficult and completely amortized Pass of Muzina and shorten the distance between Saranda and Tirana by almost one hour.

This means that with the completion of this road segment and with the completion of the Fier Bypass road project, a noose that is finally being removed from the everyone’s neck and construction work will begin in the next coming weeks, travelling between Tirana and Saranda will take no more than three hours. Something completely unthinkable just few times ago. On the other hand, I am very pleased we can now afford showing what we mean when it comes to building roads and how much it differs from what the previous government did in this respect.

I believe many have already noticed the difference, either at Milot junction, or on Pogradec’s road that is about to complete and that will be seen in all road projects we will develop.

We will build European roads and not segments that are considered both roads and crossroads, used both by cars and domestic animals. We are seeking to archive such roads. On the other hand, we can now afford building such roads in financial terms. It took a whole term in office to remove a whole mountain of debt and government arrears we found when we took over.

This road too was inaugurated with drums and tam-tams and launched as a major infrastructure project. But it just added to the debt. A few kilometres of the road were built as a means of propaganda and the construction companies were let down, because nobody assumed the responsibility to pay since no money was paid for the signed contracts. Countless unfinished roads and the whole propaganda suggesting that kilometres of roads had been built was a lie because all these roads were just put out to tender.

We can’t compete with the previous government for the number of public tenders it held, but we have provided the funding even for the road we are launching today, a segment that never finished. The previous government did not pay a single cent and but it just plunged the construction company into debt, just like it did with many other companies.

The today’s consolidated finances allow us to develop two parallel programs. One state budget-funded program like this road and another public-private-partnership program we are using for the construction of the Arberi Road, and the construction of Thumane – Kashar, Milot – Balldren highways and road between Orikum – Llogara that will be launched soon. Therefore, soon we will have a completely different view of Albania’s road network, including the Tepelena Bypass project that will be integrated in the road axis we are launching today. Imagine that here too we have inherited same problem just like it is the case with other road projects that lack the geological feasible study. This is inconceivable. All these projects will enhance mobility, but also support economic growth and employment.

To conclude, assuring you that we will make the difference regarding project implementation stage too, sticking to every detail and demanding the highest quality of works from each company, so that every penny from Albanian taxpayers’ money for roads construction is translated into a quality work.

I want to thank each and every one of you for attending the today’s meeting which is an event of great importance for the whole area but I believe it is also an activity of great importance for the future economic future and social development of our country and for the further development of Albania.

Thank you very much!