BTK commissioning date unknown

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

The commissioning date of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is unknown for the present, Turkish Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry told Trend on July 1.

The ministry said there are several problems regarding the agreement on construction of BTK, however, the ministry did not specified the problems.

Earlier it was planned to complete the project’s implementation in 2015.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed based on the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish interstate agreement. The project has been financed by Azerbaijan's state oil fund SOFAZ by way of a decree by the Azerbaijani president on the “Realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project” since February 21, 2007.

Currently, as part of the project, a new 105 km branch of the railway line is being built, while the Akhalkalaki-Marabda -Tbilisi section of the railway is being reconstructed. After completion, this will increase its capacity up to 15 million tons of cargo per a year.

The capacity of the corridor will be 17 million tons per year. At the initial stage, the figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line is effective from an economic point of view. It is stable and fully complies with environmental standards. It serves as the beginning of a new stage in transport development for the region.

This railway line will expand multi-modal transportation opportunities and ensure the growth of passenger and freight transportation.

Various countries, in particular, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have shown their interest in this project as well.

After the third year of operation, the projected volume of cargo under the railway line will be three million tons, five million tons after the fifth year, and after its tenth year, the railway could accommodate more than 10 million tons.