On the eve of September 1, Russians are returning from Georgia to Russia, while tourists have to spend more than five hours in a traffic jam at Verkhny Lars, TourDom.ru reports.
On chats, travelers report that they sometimes spend up to 15 hours at the border. According to some tourists, a week ago they passed both border checkpoints in just 3.5 hours, but with the beginning of the school year, this process becomes more complicated. "The situation is changing daily", one of the tourists writes.
"Today, the traffic jam started in the neutral zone towards Russia. "We passed the Georgia-Russian border in nine hours. We've been stuck in traffic all night today! Have a good road, everyone!", travelers say.
It should be noted that not only those who had a vacation in Georgia, but also tourists who visited Armenia, and to a lesser extent, those who traveled to Turkey on their own transport, return to Russia through Verkhny Lars. The Georgian Military Highway is the geographically shortest route for land travel from Russia to Georgia, Armenia and Turkey, but its capacity limitations and frequent traffic stops because of bad weather regularly create such traffic congestion at the border.
The solution to this problem is the Zangezur transport corridor, which will connect Russia with Armenia and Turkey with uninterrupted road and, with rail links through the territory of Azerbaijan, what is also important.
Emin Garibli, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of International Economics at UNEC, noted in an interview with a Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent that the Zangezur transport corridor will effectively solve the problem of traffic jams on Upper Lars. "The Russians will receive stable transport links not only in summer, but also in winter. We know that there are force majeure situations on the Georgian Military Road when it is cold in winter and there is a lot of snow, as well as when there are heavy rains and mudflows come down from the mountains. This is not the route you can rely on, while it is still the main one", he said.
"To solve this problem, diversification of transport communications is needed, there must be several ways. This is a really acute problem for the region, and it must be solved. That's why it's so important to open the Zangezur corridor leading from Russia through Azerbaijani territories to Armenia. Let me remind you that trade and cargo transportation through the region is growing so fast that it is necessary to diversify communications today, so that everyone is comfortable, and the costs are reduced. If we reduce costs, we will be able to solve the global problem of increasing prices for all types of goods", Emin Garibli noted.
"Through the Zangezur corridor, it is easy to connect Russia with the western provinces of Iran and transport goods between Iran and Russia by rail. Secondly, Russia will be able to transport goods through Azerbaijan both from Armenia and from Turkey and its neighboring countries. Since the West demonstrates double standards, we must cooperate more with each other, and this requires the establishment of transport routes. This will lead to an improvement in foreign economic relations between Russia and Iran,Turkey, Armenia and their neighbors", the economist concluded.
