Lilit Tadevosyan

Armenia’s Minister of Urban Construction, Narek Sargsyan, told reporters today in Yerevan that 6.4 billion AMD (US$13.4 million) would be allocated to the construction sector according to the country’s 2016 draft budget.

Sargsyan said that of the 450 families still homeless last year in the earthquake zone half had received housing so far this year, and that the allocation process for the others was proceeding.

The minister claimed that construction of the new circus in Yerevan was proceeding as scheduled and would be completed by the end of next year.

Speaking about the Hin Yerevan (Old Yerevan) project in the capital’s downtown area, Sargsyan said that the blueprint had been finalized and that Yerevan’s mayor’s office had issued demolition permits for buildings not registered as landmarks.