Today at Preze Village of Tirana City, Albania’s Prime Minister, Mr. Sali Berisha inaugurated the start of works for the reconstruction of the road section from “Rruga Nacionale” to “Preze”.The inauguration was attended also by Mr. Bujar Nishani, Minister of Justice and Deputy of this Region, Mr. Benet Beci, Executive Director of the Albanian Development Fund, Mr. Ahmet Halili, Chairman of Preze Commune as well as other local officials. The reconstruction of this road section is funded by the Council of Europe Development Bank in the framework of the Secondary and Local Roads Project which is being implemented by the Albanian Development Fund.

In his inaugural speech Mr. Berisha introduced the attendees to the progress of this project and congratulated the inhabitants on this new investment they were going to benefit from. Mr. Berisha also felicitated Mr. Beci in saying that: “The project designer and the Albanian Development Fund which is the investor have done their best to design such a road project which is one of the most beautiful in Albania.”

The investment for this contemporary project will serve the 6700 inhabitants in the Commune of Preze and it will provide powerful incentives for the promotion of local and international tourism thus contributing broadly to improve the living conditions for the inhabitants in this area and to increase the frequency of visits by potential tourists.

This road section links the National road to the Center of the Commune and Preze Castle. The cost of this project amounts at 176 million Leks. The new road which is 3.2 km long is going to have a width of 5 m with a road widening of 2 m in addition to the present width. The project also includes the road illumination, the horizontal and vertical signaling accompanied with a high safety system, sidewalks for pedestrians, steel guardrails and retaining walls.

The road section whose works are initiated is part of the “Secondary and Local Roads” Project co-financed by the World Bank and other donors at the amount of US$ 400 million. This project aims at increasing the concrete efforts for the improvement of infrastructure countrywide and at increasing the access to basic services and economic markets especially in the rural areas via the rehabilitation of about 1500 km of road network.