The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) announced on Tuesday that the Armenian Ministry of Finance has submitted a plan to proceed with phase 4 construction of the North-South road corridor, requesting $150 million in financing from the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund (ACF).

The finance ministry delivered the documents during a visit to Yerevan by a delegation of EDB experts led by Alexey Cherekayev, the head of the project team at the ACF, which approved $100 million for the project last June, but the results of a feasibility study led the Armenian government to increase the requested amount to $150 million.

The ACF will consider the request at the next meeting of the ACF's council and--if it is approved--will begin to provide financing as early as the end of this year or early in 2015.

The total cost of constructing the corridor is estimated at $1.5 billion, and construction is expected to take between five and six years. The road will be part of the North-South international transport corridor, which will establish a road connection between Europe and India through Iran and Trans-Caucasus countries.

It will cut the distance of the current sea route by more than half and reduce the cost and timing of cargo transportation. The road will also help secure a high quality transport link across Armenia, improving its access to foreign markets through Georgia.

Investment for construction of the corridor, which was approved by the Armenian government in 2010, is set to include a loan of $500 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and $82 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB).