Yerevan mayor defends proposed parking fee increase
Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan has defended the proposed increase in parking fees and charges in Yerevan strongly condemned by the opposition, adding systemic changes require tough decisions.
Particularly, the municipality seeks to raise the annual parking fees in central Yerevan from current 12,000 drams to 160,000 drams.
"This is one of those difficult decisions. Of course, we can wait another year, 10 or 20 years. We can wait forever, coming up with various excuses. But we are striving for systemic solutions, and we don't want to miss another year," Avinyan said at a meeting of the Yerevan City Council on Tuesday.
He claims that the city should be comfortable for citizens, not for cars. According to Avinyan, despite all criticism, the new measure will be effective.