Armenia discusses Ajapnyak metro construction with Russia, Pashinyan says

By Lia Avagyan

Armenia is discussing possible Russian involvement in building Yerevan’s long-planned Ajapnyak metro station, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday, as the government seeks to move ahead with a project that has faced repeated delays and sharply rising costs.

“We are discussing the construction of the Ajapnyak station with Russia,” Pashinyan told reporters. “They have extensive experience in this field, and we would be happy for them to support us.”

Pashinyan said the government’s plans go beyond the Ajapnyak station and envisage a broader expansion of Yerevan’s metro network.

He said authorities envision at least four new stations, with the line eventually running through Ajapnyak and the planned Academic City before connecting to the Charbakh station. That would allow trains to operate on a circular route.

The Armenian government approved the Ajapnyak project earlier this summer. Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan said in July that the construction plan and cost estimate had been completed and that authorities would decide on the precise implementation format within one or two months.

The project has been discussed for years but repeatedly postponed. In 2021, then-Mayor Hayk Marutyan signed a $4.6 mn contract with Russian engineering company Metrogiprotrans to prepare design documentation. CivilNet reported in 2024 that construction was not expected to begin before 2026, despite earlier promises that work would start in 2024. 

Plans suffered another setback in late 2025 when city authorities redirected funds earmarked for the station to purchase 45 trolleybuses. Avinyan said at the time that the delay was linked to the project’s technical complexity. 

The projected cost has also increased substantially. City Hall said in April that the planned expansion would require an estimated $287 mn, compared with an initial estimate of about $50 mn in 2022. Much of the cost is linked to building a bridge across the Hrazdan River gorge, along with associated tunneling and redevelopment. 

The Ajapnyak station would be the first extension of the Yerevan Metro west of the Hrazdan gorge. The system opened in 1981 and was last expanded in 1996. It currently has 10 stations.