From: Mentor KIKIA
On the last day of the year, the government opened the vault of road concessions. The owner of the Thumana-Kashar road has been granted another road segment, the Thumana-Milot section. This is a fully constructed highway, with four lanes (2×2), which only requires resurfacing. The government awarded a concession for “construction, operation, and maintenance” to a consortium of three companies, led by “Gener 2” of Bashkim Uljat, worth 44.6 million euros for 13 kilometers. Although this road was built with public funds, Albanians will pay tolls for 35 years to use it.
The same company was also granted special status as a “five-star accommodation structure investor,” a unique status, for building a resort between Rana e Hedhur and Velipoja.
In the same session, the government approved the concession contracts for two other segments, part of the so-called Blue Corridor. The Kashar-Pezë-Lekaj segment, 26.6 kilometers long, will cost 474.8 million euros (approximately 18 million euros per kilometer). It will be constructed by a consortium led by “Gjoka Konstruksion,” the concessionaire for the Arbër Road. Additionally, a concession contract was approved for the Lekaj-Fier segment, 46 kilometers long, costing 320 million euros. This road will be built by a consortium led by “Fusha sh.p.k,” the same company that received special legislation for the National Theater project.
The concessions will last for 35 years, meaning until 2060!
The toll for the entire Blue Corridor, from Balldren in Lezhë to Fier, will be paid. Each segment will be treated as a separate “property title” and will have its own toll gate. The total value of these three concession contracts is 1 billion euros.
Without considering the fact that these massive projects, costing over 1 billion euros, were approved on the last afternoon of the year, questions arise:
- Why is the approval of these large infrastructure projects so urgent, especially when they parallel or overlap with recently renovated roads, which are fully sufficient to handle traffic flows? For example, the highway from Kavaja to Fier is more than adequate.
- How is it possible that the state is handing over the primary communication arteries of the country’s road network to private ownership for decades?
- How is it that a small group of entrepreneurs are becoming owners of Albania’s road system?
- Why is society being burdened with such a financial load for the coming decades, forcing road users to pay tolls every 15 kilometers of road they use?
- The coast, through the disastrous “Strategic Investor” law, is being continuously handed over to the interests of the oligarchy, which is transforming it into a luxury neighborhood rather than a tourist service area.
Meanwhile, the national economy is being controlled by a small group of people who undoubtedly deserve the special status of “oligarch.” The political rhetoric, which intoxicates the public day and night on television screens and social media, has become fixated on whether pensions will rise by 500 or 100 lekë. The electoral rhetoric is drowning in debates about tax cuts, bonus increases, the minimum wage, the average salary, and other such nonsense.
Albania, in the meantime, is being sold off piece by piece and handed over to a small group of individuals. A generation of Albanians will work for this group. The government approves, while the opposition remains silent!
The debate for the future governing alternative should focus on how to dismantle this octopus-like legal, administrative, and political mechanism, in order to free the economy and encourage fair competition. However, it seems that all alternatives are drawing from the same source, and the electoral race has become “intense” over who will raise pensions the most.
CREATED by:
“KORÇA BOOM”
