The Academic City project is completely senseless and should be canceled, Bright Armenia party prime ministerial candidate Edmon Marukyan said during a visit to the planned Academic City site.
“For three years this topic has been used for PR. What do we have after three years? Bad smells, dust, mines nearby and an ‘Academic City.’ It does not exist,” he said, according to Panorama.am .
Marukyan stressed that the project should be canceled and that those responsible should reimburse the funds spent so far.
“The following should be done: if anything is to be built here, then a good option could be relocating all state institutions and government buildings to this area. The city would be relieved of congestion, while the center would become youth-oriented,” he said.
He added that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is now also saying that the government has made a strategic decision to build a modular nuclear power plant.
“It will be as much a modular nuclear power plant as this is an Academic City. A false thesis is being advanced, and on the basis of that false thesis the real thing is being destroyed — real universities are being shut down and destroyed,” he said.
The master plan for the Academic City is being designed by the project team of the German company gmp International GmbH Architects and Engineers, led by deputy director Tobias Keil.
The Academic City is expected to be completed by 2030. The project has been approved by the government. Education Minister Zhanna Andreasyan has stated that as a result of the education development program, four Armenian universities will be included among the top 500 in international ranking systems.
