10 million euros per kilometer, the inflated cost of Milot-Fier

The companies that have won the concessions for the construction of the road segments from Milot to Fier estimate that the cost for one kilometer will vary from 3 to 17 million euros.

The figure comes from the calculations made by Open Data of the winning bids for the two concessions that have been awarded so far, that of Thumanë-Kashar, won by Gener 2 and Lekaj-Fier, won by a merger of eight Albanian companies.

The total length of the project is 106 kilometers. Of these 66 kilometers, two concessions were granted, Thumanë-Kashar with a length of 20 kilometers and Lekaj-Fier with a length of 46 kilometers.

The other two lots of Milot-Thumane and Kashar-Lekaj are still without a winner. Kashar-Lekaj, with a length of about 27 kilometers, according to the assessment of the Ministry of Infrastructure, will cost about 475 million euros, or 17.6 million euros per kilometer.

On average, when the entire Milot-Fier segment is completed, the cost for one kilometer of road will be 10 million euros, an inflated figure if you consider that 75 percent of the axis passes on traces of existing roads.

To the cost that the citizens will pay, the fees that will be levied by the concessionaires through the placement of the crossing beam on these roads are added. So far, it is certain that the beams will be placed in Lekaj-Fier and Thumanë-Kashar, while in the two remaining lots we have to wait for the form that the government will choose for their construction, if it will be granted with a concession, where the private finance, maintain and then collect income for X years of time through payment for passage, or some other form.

In all cases, expropriation costs are added to these costs, which are paid from the state budget. In Bëxulle, this process has started, but it is opposed by the residents, who accuse Gener 2 of deviating the project.

However, to further simplify why the two concessions granted so far burden citizens' pockets and turn into gold mines for oligarchs, it is enough to mention the fact that the companies expect to collect at least 2.6 billion euros in total at the end of these concessions.

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